Andersen Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of IT at Elanders GmbH, a printing and logistics company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

In Germany, it’s hard to find proper developers in web-based development. We were looking into nearshoring or offshoring our development resources

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They offer us web development support.

What is the team composition?

There are two full-time developers.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

We found them in a Google search. We looked at a few companies, but Andersen was overwhelming in how they presented themselves and how good they were in development.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €90,000-100,000 (approximately $100,000–$112,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The quantity of the work is really great. The people are very well educated and perform really well.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via Slack and Skype. Most of the communication with the developers is in English but we’re very happy that our main contact there also speaks perfect German.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The developers were fully integrated with our development team within a few days. They didn’t need to be told what to do explicitly. They use their own brains and are interested in creating really great solutions for us.

They’re not only workers for us but they’re real team members. They share their ideas with us and are eager to develop the best solution. They’re really a great addition to our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re totally satisfied with them. We’re thinking about hiring 2–3 more people but it’s currently on hold because of COVID-19.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It was all so well organized. We also flew them into Germany for a kickoff event for one week. The best advice would be to listen to them. They do everything for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Quality Management for a process automation software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We needed development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide the main part of development as well as quality management and involvement in product management.

What is the team composition?

There are 12 people.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

They distributed a movie and wrote an email to my supervisor. We were impressed with the movie. They spoke very good German and were very promising.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Their quality is high-level. They do reviews themselves. I’m very satisfied. The quality of the developers is dependent on the input that we have here. From time to time, the input isn’t ideal and then they have to ask more questions. As soon as they ask, they deliver high quality.

They have a very good ability to adapt to the processes of our company. They’re very good at improving processes. They helped us a lot with the basics here.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

They come up with ideas on how we can work better together in Jira. We were suffering a little bit low on project management. They’re getting better. As we give them new requirements all the time, they couldn’t keep the original estimated target dates. We use a Scrum framework and it’s becoming better. The estimations are rather good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They improved the quality of the product and added new features to the product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the programmers’ English could be better. In the beginning, we had only a few programmers whose English was a little poor, but training helped improve that. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The better you prepare the project, the better they can take part, anticipate, and implement the product you have. Be very prepared with having very good specifications available. The development is rather quick and able to understand. Treat the team as your own team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the development manager at eurofunk Kappacher, an emergency dispatch center.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We needed remote development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andersen provides development support. They augment our team with remote developers. We have local developers in all the teams, as well as product owners and scrum masters. Requirement management and project management are done on our side.

What is the team composition?

We have a team of seven individuals spread out over three teams. Most of them are software developers. We also have one DevOps engineer.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

My predecessors found them through an online search. Andersen had a very good availability of talent, and they were very cooperative. We also found the whole process of negotiating the legal framework worked very well for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent 300,000 € (approximately $329,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Andersen is very active in supporting us. They’re constantly in touch and checking if everything is going alright. With the COVID-19 situation, when we switched to more comprehensive teleworking overall, they doubled their effort. 

There’s been a very good response to the situation on their part. We had some technical issues and the team made some adjustments to their data centers, which worked out quite well. We managed to get their IT teammates and ours to work together to eliminate whatever network problems we had.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in an agile framework, so we have daily standup meetings. The teams manage themselves to a large extent. Andersen’s account manager is always around, and so is the office manager for the developers.

It’s a flawless process. The management communication is mostly done via email, which is convenient because I have lots of meetings. We also have video call tools set up with the developers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Andersen continues to have readily available talent, which is important because we’re a growing company and we’re scaling up. They work with our requirements and qualification profiles.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re doing team augmentation with them which means we carry the risk associated with managing the teams. The tools, the process coaches, and the product design is ours. We’ve had some discussions surrounding how long we can take to decide who we want to hire and how long it takes for that whole process.

From initial selection, the confirmation that the candidate is someone we want to work with is about two weeks. We take about two weeks to create the administrative stuff and build them up in ERP and IT until we have the remote desktop machine and everything set up. 

These four weeks have sort of been a point of contention and have led to a bit of pressure occasionally. However, it’s not a big issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work out details and high-quality qualification profiles. Andersen seems to have the talent to match the requests quite well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Team Lead in one of the leading mobile devgame companies. I am leading the R&D team that supports two games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

Our R&D team is supporting several games on mobile and social platforms. We faced the lack of free hands to properly handle the situation with maintenance and feature development. Especially, we identified the need in extra QA and back-end resources.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to get the gap in QA capacity closed so that QA engineers could test all what the developers provide. Plus, there was a need in a specific back-end skillset that we could not find on the market. So the impact anticipated was that our games' support would be fully operational.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

we selected from several prospects for each position. The interviews were held by the members of other teams within the company, they confirmed the competencies of the suggested candidates from Andersen.

Describe the project in detail.

I am a direct manager of the whole R&D team and lead the full maintenance and feature development procecss. So we took people from Andersen as regular members of the team, with all respective access, permissions, processes.

What was the team composition?

We took two persons fromo Andersen., So, one is a QA engineer who adds to the already exisiting QA engineer. Another is a back-end developer responsible for maintenance and feature developemnt for one of the game.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All games started being fully covered with the full scope of R&D suppoort. Games are success now, fully opeerational and have plans for further development

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Because we took Andersen people as regular team members, we have shared all the procedures and tools.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I value most the selection of the specialists so that we didn't waste time tring to figure out the proper candidate among the list of names. Each person suggested was really the person professionaly suitable for us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything is fine. Any ptential improvement can be advised only when we could see it. So far, everything is fine

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead of IT and development at a software company in the energy sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We needed development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did front- and backend development work for our web application and platform. They used Angular, Go, and Node.js.

What is the team composition?

Initially, we worked with two developers. Now, we work with five of them.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

I made a tender with selected providers, and Andersen made the best offer.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $197,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

In the beginning, we had some problems, but they provided me with new resources. Their work is of good quality, and we have a good relationship with the developers. 

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is very helpful and flexible. They have an experienced management team. Additionally, our cooperation and teamwork with them have been good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our collaboration with them has been good. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, it was challenging to find the right people with the right skills. Management was open to helping us get new resources with the required skills.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Define your skill requirements clearly. Do a trial period so that you can see if it all matches your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Xpence Ltd.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We started a new version of our web application based on a new technology. We were searching for someone who has experience in Flutter.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We ordered a pilot project from them. The project took about three months and now we’re finalizing it. The first project was based on a fixed price. After this, we took another month to add some features. As a pilot, it had no documentation from our side.

What is the team composition?

There are developers, a scrum master, and QA person.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

After interviewing developers from the company, it became clear that they really knew what to do. We tried to cooperate with them on another project before this, but their estimation was too expensive for us as a startup. We hired someone else, but when we required another tool, the offer from Andersen was more suitable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about €30,000 (approximately $30,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020 and the work is ongoing. We’ve suspended it for a time due to COVID-19 but plan to start up again in the summer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I’m very happy with the cooperation. They gave me the right balance between the developers and the QA people. I’m happy to continue with them. They explained a lot of things and why it’s better to do it certain ways.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

They work in a scrum methodology. They were good with scheduling and meeting deadlines. One time they understood they were going slightly out of scope and arranged additional developers to outline the timeline. It was done without any questions from us. The project was put back on time. Their work was done really professionally.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They finished their work on time and the quality was good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the resources would change in the project. The QA person was replaced and during the middle of the project, their scrum master took another position. I think they could have found resources who could be on the project the entire time. On the other hand, the team was very small. It wasn’t a big problem to manage the directors because they were quite advanced and it wasn’t necessary to micromanage them. There was a gap in their work but it had no impact.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re flexible with all the agreements. Don’t tell them that you won’t cooperate with them on the first impression or the price. It’s possible to find an agreement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Vertex is a company positioned in the heart of Lithuania - Vilnius. Here at Vertex we are working on a lot of different projects and are always looking for new ideas. My role in this company is project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

Currently we are working on a new app called Sendato which will help Shopify users to send marketing SMS and MMS to their clients worldwide. we hired Andersen to help us with development process.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to create an app for Shopify users so that they could reach their clients via text messages about their new items in stock, collect reviews and boost their revenue.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have found Andersen just by searching for developers. There where a lot of other companies/people we have considered, but we chose Andersen because they provided great developers for a good price.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Sendato is an app for Shopify which allows users to send text messages to their clients. Andersen provides development services to us.

What was the team composition?

We are working with 2 senior developers which are helping with creating our app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our task creation and closing rate has spiked and the progress has sped up around 3 times.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

All of our tasks are being managed via GitLab. Communications are being handled by Skype. As well as that, Andersen provides monthly reports including all of the metrics and analysis.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The monthly reports are in-depth and provide a clear understanding from the developers side, which we appreciate.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything was quite great, but it would've been better if developers would have created their own issues from the main tasks. It would've given our developer some more time for his own work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Company works in payday loans industry, I am serving as Chief Technology officer there.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

Andersen was hired in order to assist with development and support of company's core product - lending ERPP platfform & website for customers.

What were your goals for this project?

To achieve stable and fast feature development, quality control and technical improvements.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Vendor was selected based on feedback for peers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Andersen covered part of development, testing and support cycle, along with in-house IT team

What was the team composition?

Team consisted around 10 people, developers, QA testers and business analysts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Business requirements & goals were achieved according to development timeline, quality surpassed the expectations.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was done by our in-house team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team excelled at working in stressful conditions and meeting deadlines.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Probably communication.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CIO of Kassir.ru, the largest ticket operator in Eastern Europe, which cooperates with promotion companies in Russia and the world, and is also the official ticket operator for events of a federal scale.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

We attracted Andersen developers to develop new functionality and support the back part of the site

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We needed a reliable partner, ready to provide the high level of data security needed in modern realities. After a series of checks, we made sure that we can trust Andersen.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Andersen employees worked on the development of the backend part of the Kassir.ru website. Work was carried out to support the existing functionality, as well as to develop new functionality that allows the company to attract more customers and increase its sales.

What was the team composition?

2 employees (back-end developer) of Andersen company became part of the Kassir.ru team + support and management of a part of the team from Andersen - 1PM.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The functionality introduced in the process of cooperation made it possible to increase the stability of the work and website conversion, which ultimately increased sales.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Andersen's specialists adhere to the project schedule and priorities, they are always available to resolve issues of any complexity and are ready to respond to any changes. 

Work on the project was carried out according to a flexible methodology, which made it possible to quickly make adjustments taking into account priority, and the reporting provided by Andersen provided transparency of cooperation.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Andersen provides a high level of service and offers effective solutions for the development of our business.

Are there any areas for improvement?

At the moment, we are satisfied with the quality of the services provided by Andersen. We are ready to cooperate in the future on our new projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We create cyustom B2B SaaS products and licence them to our customer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

Senior frontend and backend developers as well as designer

What were your goals for this project?

Create and update our large scale Saas service.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our colleague recommended Anderslab as company and also specific developers there.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Senior frontend developers Senior backend developers Designer

What was the team composition?

Team size has varied from 5-10 developers. Consting FE,BE and designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

This project was very important to us and its making it happen was critical to our business.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was done by us (in-house)

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Very good communication They are flexible, friendly, and professional developers.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing comes to my mind.