AI Engineering by Grid Dynamics

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a rental website. We do online vacation rentals, similar to Airbnb and other sites that are out there.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daxx?

We had hired a development group internally but the relationship did not work out, so we needed to find replacement developers. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were looking for a new development team that was not simply a bunch of code monkeys, which we had encountered already. We wanted some kind of oversight with the group. You weren’t hiring a developer directly, but hiring a company that was going to help you through the process; match you to the right developer and all that. Daxx took us in, got our intake forms, and really explored our situation. Once they understood what we were experiencing, they assigned multiple resources to us to make sure that we felt comfortable. Before we even started a contract, they talked us through the whole process and how it was going to happen. They gave us an unbelievable, almost unprecedented amount of time to make sure that we were clear with the process and that we were comfortable with it. 

How did you come to work with Daxx?

It was through seemingly endless research. We dealt directly with Daxx for a couple of days to know more about the intake process. After speaking to Daxx, we felt incredibly confident about working with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have worked with them for over 6-months with one developer, and now we have two developers. We are satisfied not only with the developers but the whole way the company is operated.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We interact with those developers directly all the time. They are amazingly communicative and the language barrier is not a factor. They’re competent, funny, personable—they are definitely not automatic developer robots. They were chosen specifically for us. We were given a number developers to choose from and we interviewed them directly. Daxx took internal responsibility, conducting performance evaluations for the developers. Once we selected the lead developer, he took responsibility for giving skill and speed tests to the junior developer candidates that we were considering. Once we shortlisted them, the lead developer said, “Look, let me help you by leaving out any potential employees that might be right but aren’t a good fit.” They have done an exceptional job.

How did Daxx perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated with them through Basecamp, Bitbucket, email, Skype, and Facetime. If we had questions over the weekend, they would Facetime us from home. They absolutely became part of our team.

What did you find most impressive about Daxx?

Most companies in the marketplace, especially those working in tech, have very specific impressions when it comes to outsourcing. We’ve worked with other companies that outsource, we’ve also worked with developers in-house. I can say that going with Daxx was not just the best decision that we made, it’s a decision we would recommend to anybody. They’re very European in their approach to setting up their company structure. They are so thorough. Everyone we deal with goes the extra mile, from admin to accounting, developers, and basic emails—everything. They really get the job done. We’ve had terrible experiences with developers, so we honestly went into this the same way you go into a relationship after breaking up. However, we were completely blown away by everything about them.

They are a perfect fit for us. The lead developer is extraordinary. As an individual, he clicks well with our particular mindset, our company, and personal cultures'. He is not just an employee; we feel like we made a friend and he is somebody that we want to know. And this is a company that we want to know and work with, so we continue to do so even once our project is finished.

Are there any areas Daxx could improve?

When the project is done and launched, we would be able to provide that feedback. But for now, I can say that we are 100% satisfied in terms of development and gear up. Once we have that data, I’m sure we would be 100% satisfied as well, but you never know.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am one of the founders of our company. We’ve built an online shipping platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daxx?

We were looking for a developer to join our efforts. We interviewed a few candidates on a freelance basis but weren't happy with them. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our developer from Daxx works on back-end PHP and front-end tasks. That developer works on every area of the software, so he has a fundamental role. Depending on the situation, we work on a collaborative basis or a more requirements-based setup.

How did you come to work with Daxx?

I don't remember how we found Daxx, but it may have been through a marketing email. We engaged Daxx as a more formalized version of previous efforts. Our company's team is distributed throughout the globe. There weren't really any boundaries for us in terms of recruiting a developer.

How much have you invested with Daxx ?

We pay $2,000 per month for Daxx’s services. [1,500 GBP]

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Daxx for 6 months. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Daxx was always fast to respond to feature requests. Before we started working with Daxx, we couldn't handle changes at anywhere near our current speed. The positive feedback our product has received is a direct result of Daxx' work.

How did Daxx perform from a project management standpoint?

Daxx performed well in terms of project management. We use Trello and Intercom for organizing feature requests.

What did you find most impressive about Daxx?

In terms of higher-end virtual employees, we don't have a basis for comparison with Daxx. Compared to other freelancers, though, Daxx has provided a much more transparent collaboration. We don't have to worry about timeliness, which takes some weight off our team.

Are there any areas Daxx could improve?

The only drawback has been that we don't have a set contact person at Daxx for any issues which may arise. When we first got in touch with Daxx, we spoke to 4 to 5 different people, each one with a different role. Whenever I have a question or problem, I have to fire an email to all of them. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company specializes in logistics automation for the agricultural industry. Specifically, we provide grain elevators for food processing plants and similar operations. We manufacture equipment and develop software for it, offering a turnkey solution for automating specific business processes. The main types of processes that we automate are grain-to-grain elevators for harvest trucks. Those trucks need to be weighed and unloaded, generating tickets for drivers and sending transactions to accounting systems. This type of interfacing is what our systems offers. We provide RFID [radio-frequency identification] systems, outdoor ticket printers, cameras, and so on. We're also involved with businesses that need to load and unload train cars, barges, and ocean vessels with grain.

What is your position?

I am the director of software engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Daxx?

We have an in-house development team and are continuing to grow it. At one point, five years ago [in 2011], we were looking to get some additional talent. We tried using an offshore engagement with an Indian company. For one reason or the other, it didn't work out, so we came to wind down the engagement. In the case of Daxx, the difference was that they source developers from Eastern Europe mainly. It was easier to work with them because a large number of our company's employees are also from Eastern Europe, so communication was easier. English was desired, but not a major requirement. The five-hour difference was also much better than in the case of the Indian developer, who had a major time difference to our location. We decided to give Daxx a try and are still working with them four years later. We have a very good relationship.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We primarily work with line-of-business applications utilizing SQL Server, .NET and C#. We're also starting to look into cloud development, but our primary focus is on the Microsoft technology stack. 

Our relationship with Daxx is not so much an outsourcing one as it is team augmentation. The developers brought onboard by Daxx become a part of our team, sharing the same work items that we allocate internally.

Daxx has a very strong HR team, and they are proactive in trying to find the right talent. The interviewing process was much easier with Daxx than with other companies. When a person is brought in, Daxx will work to ensure that that person is happy inside the team. Any issues or frictions are addressed proactively.

We started out with one developer from Daxx, and have come to use five people from their company. We are in the process of hiring another one.

How did you come to work with Daxx?

I believe that a Daxx representative contacted me initially.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We spend between $120,000 and $200,000 per year for our team from Daxx.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Daxx at the end of 2012. We're now expanding our team there, and even bring their developers here on business trips, in order to expose them to the local work culture and team. We treat them as remote employees, rather than as an offshore team, which has to work on a specific task.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

As we continued working with Daxx, some of their developers came to our company on work visas, becoming a part of our local team. We liked what they did and how they did it, so we wanted to have them closer to us. Daxx helped us staff our team with professionals who are very easy to bring up to speed. We don't have to waste very much time with people who aren't right for the job.

How did Daxx perform from a project management standpoint?

Daxx' team delivered the work on time and with good quality. We use Microsoft Team Foundation Server for our collaboration, and Visual Studio for the development itself. We have a continuous integration process using scrum technology. We divide the work into sprint cycles, and have regular meetings at two-week intervals, talking about what needs to be done.

What distinguishes Daxx from other providers?

What I found noteworthy about Daxx is their ability to maintain a strong HR presence, allowing me to concentrate less on these tasks. When working with an offshore team, we need to make sure that we understand the dynamics of the human factor, assessing who is and isn't working out well. Daxx's HR has worked closely with me in making sure that those problems are addressed quickly. 

Is there anything Daxx could have improved or done differently?

Daxx has done a pretty good job as it is, so there isn't much that needs to be changed. They could provide more internal tooling for developers. At the moment, we need to provide software licenses for their workstations ourselves. Trying to get that software installed from our location is more complicated than we'd like.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company delivers a high-end data replication software product. We are a competitor of Oracle GoldenGate. From a functional perspective, we transport data out of busy databases, in order to increase availability or to provide real-time business intelligence. We replicate Oracle DB2 and Microsoft databases to the same kinds of formats, but also work with specific data warehouses like TL Data and Oracle Exadata. From a technical perspective, moving content from hundreds of databases is quite complicated, given that hundreds of users may be executing transactions on the databases being manipulated. If the system refuses a backup because of usage, another option is to read information out of lock files. Every vendor has their own system, and it can be quite complicated to get transactions out in the same order as they were initially entered. With this method, we can capture what is called nonintrusive data out of a database, encrypt it and ship it out of the network, entering it more or less in real-time into another database. Our product also offers transformation from the technical structure of one database, like Oracle, into the structure of another one, like Microsoft SQL Server.

What is your position?

I am the director of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Daxx?

When looking at what I've described regarding our activity, it becomes apparent that it's a quite complicated product. We have our own engineering team, but we've come to scale our organization. We needed additional developers, mathematicians, and physicists with extraordinary capabilities, who are in the top 10 percent of their fields, not only from an intellectual perspective but also in terms of technical skill sets. We need crazy, clever people who are fond of technology and are capable of handling low-end programming in C. These can be sparse, so we've extended our engineering team through offshore capabilities.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Daxx has been providing managed teams in charge of all organizing for our local infrastructure. The management of engineers is handled by us. With the help of Daxx, we can scale our organization more quickly.

Daxx is also in charge of design. From a functional perspective, our solution is simple, but it involves deep engineering and research from a technical perspective. In terms of business requirements, we only need to get data from one database to another. Actually making this work is the hard part.

Our work starts with a technical investigation, which leads to a design of how it could work. As a company, we have great knowledge of how things work in general, but every specific vendor database project will start with some research, including technical designs and programming. Daxx has mainly offered basic programming based on designs made by other resources. As such, Daxx is a full part of our engineering team.

On average, we use a four-person team from Daxx. We are elaborating on the possibility of expanding it.

How did you come to work with Daxx?

I have a friend who also works in software development. He'd had a very good experience with Daxx, and I was having difficulties in scaling our engineering group. I reached out to Daxx and investigated their capabilities. We started our work using only one resource but have expanded the team considerably.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost of Daxx's services has been $400,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Daxx in October 2013. We have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our own engineering team is based in Amsterdam while Daxx is located in Ukraine, so there is a difference in our teams. We measured Daxx by their capability of hiring great technicians. Daxx has been able to satisfy us in this regard.

A second factor was whether Daxx would be able to provide an adequate work environment, which would encourage engineers to stay with the company. This is a problem in our field, given that it can take a while to get the right experience with a complicated product. Daxx has performed well on this second subject as well. Staff fluctuation is low.

How did Daxx perform from a project management standpoint?

We handle project management ourselves. We use tools like JIRA for project tracking. Daxx works as a part of our engineering team, utilizing the same equipment as we use in the Netherlands.

What distinguishes Daxx from other providers?

The most important issue for us was whether Daxx could deliver good engineers, and if they were capable of offering a good work environment. Daxx could do it, so I'm quite satisfied. Any issues with individuals wanting to relocate or leave the company were solved in a balanced way.

Is there anything Daxx could have improved or done differently?

Daxx could improve its sales pitch. Recruiting great people is a challenge for our company as well as for Daxx. Expanding their network in order to attract more people would be an improvement. This is just a general desire. Engineering companies have a greater demand than there is a supply in the market.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a web-based software developer from the Netherlands. We work with local advertising agencies, providing technical work.

What is your position?

I am the chief executive officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Daxx?

We needed additional resources for our team in order to have more flexibility. Finding skilled developers in the Netherlands is quite hard. It takes a lot of time and costs money. We needed to speed this up, so we hired Daxx.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Daxx is tasked with coding using web technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL. Daxx has built a great number of websites and online stores for our clients. They're also working on our own platform.

I hired our resources from Daxx myself, after testing their skills. Currently [as of August 2016], we are using six developers. 

How did you come to work with Daxx?

I came in contact with one of Daxx's owners. We decided to hire one of their resources, and used them for one and a half years. We were also using an Indian company at that time, but weren't very happy with them. We decided to hire additional developers from Daxx.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We've spent around $18,000 to $19,000 per month on Daxx's services during the last two years. Their initial rate was lower, given that we were using fewer developers.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship with Daxx.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Daxx is good at taking care of their domestic employees. They have events, make evaluations, and hire new staff within two-week periods. Daxx has done everything that we asked for in order to make us happy. Daxx has also collaborated with us in trying to find more work during slow periods.

How did Daxx perform from a project management standpoint?

If we ever had an issue with a particular resource, Daxx handled it fast. There were no problems in terms of delivery. We use GitHub for project tracking. We also have our own project management system and use the Asana task tool.

What distinguishes Daxx from other providers?

Daxx is able to hire people fast, based on our profiles. They're able to maintain those resources, which I think is distinguishing about Daxx.

Is there anything Daxx could have improved or done differently?

Daxx could improve in terms of pricing. One of the reasons for using them was the speed of obtaining new resources and simpler contracts, but pricing is becoming a problem.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

In 2007, my company created a product called FSR, which was a unique offering at the time, and came to be used by numerous Fortune 500 companies. It was software designed to help public companies handle their Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and financial filings. 

After this, I created a startup called IGM Technology, through which I designed a broader version of my product, helping companies through the entire filing process, not just reporting. This included tax provision and account reconciliation, among others. Its unique aspect was that it was designed to be 100 percent cloud-based, instead of running from the client's server.

What is your position?

I am the chief executive officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Daxx?

I needed to find development resources for my product.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

The business model offered by Daxx has worked very well for me. I hired and interviewed the developers and work with them directly. Daxx has facilitated the environment, in terms of offices, computers, food, and so on. They're not involved in the technological part, although they help in terms of administration, making sure that people are coming and leaving on time, managing vacations and so on. Daxx's control ensures that I can utilize my people properly.

I started by using one resource from Daxx and have come to use up to nine people at peak capacity. As our product neared completion, I reduced the numbers and brought some of the work to Toronto. I am still working with one developer from Daxx.

How did you come to work with Daxx?

In 2014, I was initially looking to hire a local, Toronto-based company, but found a technology barrier. There are good developers in Toronto but, because of the complexity of my product, I needed to use the latest technology. I couldn't find the right people in Canada, who had enough knowledge of cloud technology.

Because I'd worked with Romanian developers through my previous engagements, I thought that I'd look for other offshore companies. I looked at ones from Romania, Belarus, and Ukraine. I eventually found Daxx.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I cannot provide an exact cost. Ukraine is not very attractive in terms of pricing at the moment, given that the Canadian dollar has gone down in value. The advantage is that Daxx has strong resources, and they can work with the latest technology.

What is the status of this engagement?

I have an ongoing relationship with Daxx [as of August 2016].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Daxx hasn't been involved in sales, marketing, or the direction of the code. They do offer this business model to other clients, but I didn't want this turnkey approach.

The indirect impact of Daxx's efforts has come through their excellent control. They have a solid, well-organized system. I didn't need to worry constantly about what the developers were doing, which a good advantage. Daxx took away many of my logistical concerns.

How did Daxx perform from a project management standpoint?

I handled project management aspects. The product was not finished on time, but not because of Daxx. It all stemmed from how much I wanted to invest in the first phase. Within my model, Daxx was very good at managing people and organizing the workspace.

There was a moment of crisis in Ukraine at one point, because of the political situation. Many people left the country to avoid being drafted to the army. Daxx helped as much as they could within this time, finding replacements quickly. There was an impact to my business, but it wasn't a huge problem. 

I have a cloud solution called JIRA, which is used within my company by the internal staff as well as the people from Daxx.

What distinguishes Daxx from other providers?

Daxx has a good business model, allowing companies to get extra development capacity. Daxx is also strong in finding talented people. They're situated in a good jobs market. Resources are a key factor. If a company can't find good people, they're not very valuable.

Is there anything Daxx could have improved or done differently?

I can't think of anything.