Avantgarde Labs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Paessler AG's core business is the network monitoring software product Paessler PRTG. This software product monitors and classifies system conditions and collects statistics from various hosts such as switches, routers, servers and other devices and applications. I am a Team Manager at Paessler which is a position in middle management and my responsibilities include leading development teams and making sure that they have everything they need to contribute towards company goals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Avantgarde Labs, and what were your goals?

Passler's goal was to replace its monolithic B2B shop system for selling PRTG software licenses by moving to an eCommerce platform based on micro services. The current shop system, based on an outdated tech stack, limited the possibilities to further develop Paessler's business model.

Changes to existing functionalities and new developments were only possible at great expense or could not be implemented. A large part of the available development capacity had to be invested in the maintenance of the existing system and the maintenance of the necessary security standards.

SOLUTION

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

For the realization of the new eCommerce platform, Paessler commissioned experienced developers and architects from Avantgarde Labs to support Paessler's inhouse team. It was important for us to have experienced consultants at our side for the requirements elicitation, the design of the architecture and the selection of the appropriate tech stack, and who would then also accompany us during the quality-assured implementation.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

A microservice-based approach was taken in the implementation of the new eCommerce platform. The services to be developed for the customer were realized as separate modules. Each individual service could be adapted and implemented independently and faster to the customer use cases. The following modules were developed for the new eCommerce platform:

• Licensing Service which functions as a license warehouse
• Activation service for online activation of our product
• Search service for high-performance searching and filtering according to criteria
• Admin Portal as an administration interface for managing customer licenses and product activation data
• Adapter service for communication between the licensing and activation backend with the new Sales platform

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

We started with four developers and two architects. Over the project the resources varied due to budgetary constraints.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

With the implementation of the eCommerce microservices, the legacy eCommerce system can now be shut down step by step as new functionality becomes available in the new system. This leads to a considerable increase in the performance of the business processes. By using a modern tech stack, many optimizations and features could also be realized:

• potentially existing security risks were eliminated,
• the maintainability of the services was simplified,
• the usability of the Admin Portal was increased and now enables its users to work more efficiently
• and search queries are more targeted and time efficient. Due to the microservice-based approach, the individual services can be easily expanded with further developments. This leads to a faster time-to-market for new features and products, such as new types of licenses.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Avantgarde Labs was always quick to respond to changing circumstances and communication was always easy and to the point as they seamlessly integrated into our communication infrastructure. Deliveries were always on time and the availability of the hired resources was always there when we needed it.

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

The uncomplicated integration of architects and developers from Avantgarde Labs into our team enabled us to implement our projects very quickly. Avantgarde Labs' many years of experience helped us plan, realize and implement the desired eCommerce Micro Services.

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

Nothing comes to mind

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder & CEO of 4D Energy, we specialize in AI trading on the energy exchange, creating additional revenue for battery storage operators.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Avantgarde Labs, and what were your goals?

Development of an autonomous, high-available and ai-based trading system for the European Power Exchange (EPEX SPOT SE) with a fully fledged integration with one of the 4 transmission system operators in Germany.

SOLUTION

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

We met at a green energy convention, and we chose them because of the skills and abilities of each of the four directors, and for their knowledge of digital markets.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They designed and developed the Algorithm, through weekly and daily meetings. We first started with the test system of the EPEX SPOT testing and understanding how the market and the communication with the market works. Ending with a strategy that would create revenue. They work a lot with different technologies, such as Google cloud platform, vaadin, Mongo DB etc.

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

There are 2 employed Software Developers from Avantgarde Labs working full time on this project. All 4 managing directors are also working on the development of the company in the fields of Software development, legal issues, financing, and HR. And one master student working on his thesis about the impact of weather prognosis on the electricity market.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We are now using the algorithm which has worked well. Right now we are working on the second trading bot, and improving the first one on a daily basis.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The project management was great; they were always open to our feedback. We use google Meet, Slack and Jira to organise and communicate on a daily basis.

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

They are always available for us, and their way of working is something special. Their flexibility and quality of work is outstanding.

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

As Avantgarde Labs is growing rapidly in terms of projects and staff, we had small delays from time to time (every two or three months).