Clurgo

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a software house providing solutions for corporate banking institutions. I’m one of the managing directors of our Polish branch, which was started 15 years ago. Here, we focus on development for two of our products, and our marketing is located in Germany.

We have a portfolio of products on offer and a common codebase for all our projects. We also do some customizations for customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

We’ve worked on a couple of projects with them, consisting of enrichment and development of new features for our products, either as part of our internal development or exclusively ordered by customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As I mentioned, we’re developing two products here, the first one being an e-banking or cash/payment management solution for corporates. Users can manage their accounts, download statements, and do all the things that companies do when interacting with a bank.

We’ve worked with Clurgo to introduce some additional complexities and use cases to the software. Corporate payments are a bit more complex than retail ones, requiring lots of approvals for the money to be transferred to the beneficiary.

The second product is a platform for institutions to consolidate their solutions into one product for the end-user.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 1–10 software developers of different levels from Clurgo. There’ve been some team fluctuations, and we’re currently working with three people, and only on the integration platform.

All other roles involved in project development were covered by us internally, including project management. My personal point of contact was their account manager, and each of the developers was embedded in our team, with no separation between us and them. They were directly supervised by our scrum masters.

Each developer required 2–4 months of onboarding due to the nature of our projects. They were all working on existing code, and that onboarding period is similar for our internal developers.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

The selection was done by one of my colleagues. I believe Clurgo was found through a reference.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost varied depending on the skillset and level of each developer. I cannot provide a figure.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Clurgo in August 2018, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Clurgo’s involvement, we’ve been able to fulfill our commitments to our core customers. They supported us during a crucial moment when we had an urgent need to ramp up our development team. Development on a complex stack requires time, which we didn’t have, but they really did their best.

Timeliness was also dependent on the individual developer, and we worked on a time and materials contract. In a general sense, they were able to meet estimates. Some developers were better than others, and some consumed more effort than was estimated. This was also due to them working in a new environment and requiring more ramp-up time.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was done according to our expectations, and communication was really good. They were always sensitive to our feedback, and they applied it on several levels. They also communicated it to the developers, making sure we were all on the same page. Understanding of our constraints, they accepted that we weren’t always able to provide clear guidance.

Clurgo was embedded in our team. Whatever happened, they were receptive to our feedback, and they made sure that each of their people was effective and efficient in their position.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were always capable of coming up with a list of candidates for the requirements we had. There was a cost to pay in terms of training and learning, but I can’t remember a case of them causing a problem that required us to step up. That was really impressive. There was maybe one case like that, but the technology was really difficult.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the cases where we identify developers we’d like to keep with us, to continue the collaboration in the longer term, it would help us if Clurgo could manage it. Their developers sometimes have a tendency to be oriented toward short-term projects, then look for new adventures and technologies. That’s understandable when looking at it from the perspective of a younger developer, but we strive for continuity. The less rotation we have, the better.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I couldn’t give any advice to companies looking to engage them for fixed-price projects, because we haven’t done that. For someone looking to work with Clurgo on an augmentation basis, it’s important to have proper interviews with the candidates. Clurgo can provide support based on the client’s case.

We also checked to see whether the people we were engaging were available for a duration where it would make sense commercially. If we had a smaller task that wasn’t embedded into the most complex parts of our product, and we were short on capacity, we’d undoubtedly go with the first choice. If we had a topic that required complex, long-term development, like a core component, then I’d really think twice and make sure the person we were engaging was available in the long term.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of mElements, a FinTech company working as part of mBank Group, which is one of the largest banks in the Polish market. My department is responsible for developing the e-commerce area of mBank Group. We mainly cater to medium and small merchants, providing additional value to the banking and financial services of our company. Our platform gives them the possibility to develop their businesses and integrate directly with our bank’s services, which allows them to make their business more flexible and easy to use.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

We identified a business opportunity in the form of a new payment service that would give our merchant clients the possibility to easily integrate with the payment platform we provide and execute payments through the internet. We wanted to bring some external specialists to support our in-house team from a technical perspective, so we started looking for senior Java developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started work with an MVP version of this payment platform. Clurgo provided developers that we integrated into our own scrum team as full members. It wasn’t a strict outsourcing project, because we didn’t give them the entire project, though.

Our tech stack is based on Java, but we were mainly looking for people willing to learn new things. Our technology model is cloud-based, using Azure and AWS, and we wanted Clurgo’s people to learn this part of our stack as well. We have wide competencies within our team, and we wanted them to learn the DevOps approach and become involved in operational things connected to cloud configurations and installations.

What is the team composition?

We more or less use a by-the-book scrum structure, with a team made up of developers, DevOps specialists, a product owner, and a scrum master. Clurgo brought us two Java candidates, which were taken through a full recruitment process from our side.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

We were actively searching for developers, and Clurgo provided us information on LinkedIn about their team of Java developers. I contacted their representatives and asked whether there was a possibility to provide us those kinds of people for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000–$150,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Clurgo in September 2018, with one developer. The second one came onboard one month later. The collaboration is ongoing, and we’re now rolling out the production version of the MVP.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very happy with the performance of Clurgo’s team members. They are very good specialists. They worked as part of the scrum team, and their performance was quite good.

Their team members had good technical experience, and they provided us with additional views on technical problems and took full responsibility for their work.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

There was no need to have a project manager on Clurgo’s side. We could communicate with the two developers directly, and they took part in our daily, planning and refinement meetings. The communication part was very good on the part of them. They worked remotely, so it was quite a challenge for us; most of the team was on-site, and Clurgo’s people were based in another city. We managed to work effectively and correctly though, and there were no problems from this perspective.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had the right experience, not only from a technical perspective but also from previous scrum projects. They consulted on how we could improve as a team and scrum organization, to be more effective and perform better. They both took on the technical task and engaged in the organizational part of our company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could involve themselves more deeply in the business domain. Either they didn’t want to, or they couldn’t understand it as well as I wanted.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the program manager of a software house company, leading a team of over 20 people. My main focus is on integration and e-commerce projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

We were looking for experienced Java developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

One project is implementing a proxy library for a payment terminal, while another is developing a CMS. We’ve had the platform for 8–9 years. It’s legacy software, but they’re helping us to deliver new features to it. They’ve used Java, Spring, and Hibernate.  

What is the team composition?

They provide well-qualified team members for us. I have one main point of contact who helps me out.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

A friend of mine whom they were helping recommended them to me. I didn’t consider any other companies.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship began in November 2017 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve delivered as expected and on time.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve used Jira, Confluence, and Slack. They’re very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re able to dig into the details of the legacy software. They’re skillful and prompt.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re very focused on delivery, which is good, but it sometimes causes them to miss important points from a business perspective.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Specify exactly what you want to achieve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the business area director in Poland for a large IT provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

I was looking for someone with profound knowledge of CRM [customer relationship management] development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clurgo was responsible for designing and producing three CRM systems. We built them in-house, but Clurgo added new functionalities. They designed and produced the technical solution based on our description of work. They delivered the implementation of changes and prepared production instructions and supply deployment of changes into the UAT [user acceptance testing] test environment.

It’s a 3-tier technology: the public layer is on Microsoft SQL server, the application layer is Java EE [enterprise edition], and the presentation layer is Adobe Flex.

What is the team composition?

They have a project manager, designer, developers, and testers. I supervised Clurgo in the three CRM models.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

A customer suggested them. They said Clurgo was familiar with their CRM systems and would be capable to do our project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m satisfied with the quality of their work. I had no problems delivering their product. The customer checked every component, and everything was fine.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is good—I receive information regularly. We use Jira to track the current state of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have profound knowledge of CRM systems, especially in the customer domain. They’re reliable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The cooperation has been successful. I’d give them more opportunities to prove their abilities.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was technology director for a global agency brand and was responsible for managing more than 100 developers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

We needed someone who was competent and strong in Java.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with two or three different clients in Europe. They worked on different aspects such as technology, architecture, QA [quality assurance], and all the aspects related to software development and digital economies.

One project was the integration of a middle layer connection with the backend system on the SAP [systems, applications & products]. They used Java for the middle layer connectivity on JBoss, connecting to the mobile frontend. They did that project from end-to-end.

What is the team composition?

There were 5–10 people.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

Their competencies spoke for themselves. When I found them, I talked to them about how they develop. We started small and we grew over time.

How much have you invested with them?

$10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March until June 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very satisfied with the quality of their work. We had our own QA team that verified the quality. I’ve never heard negative comments about their quality or technology skills. It was a very good collaboration.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was done more on our side and the client side. They had a project manager on the bigger projects so it we had shared project management responsibilities. The communication was good.

They were very technical and knew what they were doing. I was very satisfied with how we set up: it was very efficient and everything worked fine. We used Jira, Slack, and Bugzilla.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technology skills and how they can learn very fast was impressive. If they weren’t familiar with a technology stack, they were able to catch up very quickly and deliver quality work. We didn’t have to teach them or give them months to learn something.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We used them because of their excellent technical knowledge. However, for client representation, it should be slightly better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust Clurgo and use them. I’m absolutely satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m head of delivery of Smart Factor, a company working on solutions for smart cities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

We needed to design a software for infrastructure load management. We didn’t have enough resources on our side, so we decided to work with Clurgo.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clurgo was responsible for the back- and frontend coding of the inventory database we built for road infrastructure. Java is the main technology, but it has a PostgreSQL and PostGIS database.  They implemented coding based on provided business and system requirements. We used an Agile process with several iterations where Clurgo delivered code for review and deployment.

The product is designed to provide a geographically-referenced load infrastructure inventory. There’s a map in the background where all elements of the infrastructure are overlaid and accompanied by their own attributes (e.g., roads, pavements, traffic signs, road equipment).

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and a few developers from their team. The project had two stages—the first of which I wasn’t directly involved with and am unsure of who participated. We used two developers for the second stage.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

We’d had a positive experience with Clurgo in the past, so we included them in our list of trusted companies.

How much have you invested with them?

The project’s cost was between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2016 and finished in November 2017. We’re planning to work with them again in 2018. We have two or three projects in standby that are waiting for budget allocation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We went through an audit of Clurgo’s source code after the first project stage. The results were very good and showed only minor issues. We started the second stage based on this result.

The feedback has been very good in terms of their technical skills around coding. They also demonstrated a good understanding of our business. This was a challenge given that the road-management area is very specific and houses many vital details.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was small, so we didn’t require advanced project management processes. We used a Trello board, Slack for communication, and Jira for the software development process. Clurgo followed our procedures well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated their technical skills because it was an important area for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing specific comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t have any advice other than following a standard process for outsourcing software development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a business unit director for a software house company, leading around 50 people in my unit. We mainly work on custom systems development and maintenance on behalf of logistics, telecommunications, finance, and pharmaceutical clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

We started a large project for a customer in the logistics sector. It was a huge undertaking involving 60 people at its peak. We didn’t have enough staff to cover all project streams, so we started looking for support in the market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clurgo worked with us on a single project, developed using our custom legacy architecture. We made some changes in the business process and in around 200 architecture components. The work was mainly software customization meant to provide new services for customers. The technologies used were Java frameworks, including Queue, Enterprise Edition, Spring, and Hibernate. We also use Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL.

What is the team composition?

We hired six developers from their team, including two senior developers, who served as team leaders, and four junior resources. We were also in contact with the company’s director.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

Another directors of ours found them. I believe we found Clurgo through a common customer, for whom we worked on different projects.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of the project was more than 2 million Polish zloty [$600,000 USD].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Clurgo in April 2016. The project lasted for six months, ending in September. After that point, we were able to cover all development in-house.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We conducted code reviews on their code. There were some mistakes, but they were easily fixed. We had no general issues.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

Generally speaking, they performed well and did what they were supposed to do. We were satisfied with the job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The competence of the two senior developers was very high. We were very satisfied with their work and service level.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no negative comments. We would use Clurgo again in the future, if we had the need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was a project manager for Fujitsu Technologies, leading several projects in the company. I was responsible for gathering internal and external teams, negotiating with customers, and providing support for the sales team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

We had a project that couldn’t be fulfilled with other companies because of its high technical requirements. We were looking for a different solution and came across Clurgo .

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clurgo provided Java coding on a fixed-project basis. We provided the scope and performance requirements.

The application was used by a large mobile operator for the management of millions of records. They needed to process those records online and had a high throughput. There were multiple inputs and outputs, and a need to modify some records. It was a sophisticated platform.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of developers and system architects. There was a crew manager on their side, but not a project manager.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

I asked for referrals from colleagues. I found three companies and compared their offers.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of the project was around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October or November 2014. The project took two months to complete, and was completed on schedule.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The customer was satisfied with the project. They ordered change requests, extending the initial scope. We had high demands around database write speeds and records processing. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but they exceeded 30,000 records per second. They were able to achieve this.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a tight schedule, but they managed to finish within the initial scope. We had no problems regrading project management. We used Redmine for tracking, and Google Hangouts and Skype for communication. Some of their members were present on-site, so we communicated directly.

They’re quite organized, and work with morning standups. This worked very well in our case.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We didn’t specify a precise approach for fulfilling our requirements, but they had experience on how to design high-demand applications like ours. This was beneficial from our point of view.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They provided what we asked for in a timely manner, and the price was not very high.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm one of the cofounders of a Swedish startup company called Besettle Finance AB, which was founded in 2014.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

Clurgo essentially works as our I.T. department, and helped build our B2B payment platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clurgo does all the development for the platform, as well as maintenance and operations services. In addition to monitoring that all the jobs are running on a daily basis, they give us a lot of support in the operations area. The development is completely Java based. In the beginning, it was just a backend transaction processor. Within the past three or four months, Clurgo has started to build a user interface for our customer support organization.

Via our platform, users can send in a payment request towards a corporate bank account, which are authorized through our platform. It captures purchase orders and manages payment so the buyer of goods and services will only get one invoice for their purchases within a certain period. It's like a Mastercard or Visa payment network, but is restricted to certain corporate accounts in the biggest Nordic banks and financial institutions, like SAB, Nordia, and Amex.

What is the team composition?

We've never worked with more than three resources at the same time, but have managed to work with several different individuals over the years. By now, at least six or seven Clurgo employees are familiar with our platform.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

We chose them purely based on my prior work with the founders. I know and trust them. They offer a very competitive price, and I knew beforehand that they are very good at what they do. We didn't do a big search for other potential competitors. I've been very happy working with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in early 2015. We've planned to continue working with them step by step on small tasks. We try to work as agile as possible, and the development is quite customer driven. Each month, we assess what resources and work we need.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform has been working perfectly for what it's supposed to do. We've only had one incident during the three years it’s been running. The quality of the backend development they’ve performed has been great. We're a startup, and the transaction volumes are around 4,000-5,000 per month, which is very low in this business.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very responsive towards our communication. We meet in person annually, and hold Skype conferences regularly. They charge a fixed price for certain small projects, and take care of all the steps. For the last couple of months, we've been working a bit more agile, and prioritize for each two-week iteration. We're currently using the Jira tool, where I can place small change requests on a daily basis. With this approach, I am the project manager and test manager.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very skilled, particularly with backend development. The team always comes back with good proposals and suggestions about how to do things better. I appreciate that a lot. They’ve also been very proactive regarding the operations support they provide. All in all, I'm very happy with their services.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This is general advice for any type of a development consultant, but you have to be very clear about your requirements. It's up to you to really specify in detail what the solution is supposed to do. You can't just say "I have this vision" and expect them to deliver on it. I think that's okay, as long as you're aware of it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIPO [Chief Innovation Project Officer] for Allakando. We offer private tutoring, nanny services, and web courses for teenagers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clurgo?

We’ve been working on new web services and developing courses from scratch. We’ve also been developing new components for our Salesforce CRM system. We were looking for a company that could help us with all aspects of development on these new projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clurgo worked with us to build two web-based, mobile-friendly applications, as well as several custom features within them. There are two national tests here in Sweden that we included courses on, and they’re each formatted very differently. It was a challenge to create apps that could parallel these formats in a helpful way, but Clurgo developed them from scratch and met all our technical requirements. The apps are written in mainly JavaScript, and they’re integrated with Salesforce for data storage.

These are very advanced applications. Users can sign up as demo account or as full accounts and log in. Within the application, users will receive feedback depending on how they score within the application. The scores are based on an intrinsic algorithm that we wrote together with Clurgo. The apps also allow for administrative oversight with an overarching admin portal that allows us to edit content. Since the initial completion of the project, we decided to move forward with Clurgo on several upgrades that are currently in the pipeline.

What is the team composition?

I’m consistently in communication with one of the managing partners and a senior QA tester, but I’ve been in regular contact with their developers as well. When things are busy, we have about eight people working on the project, and team members will be added/removed depending on the scope.

How did you come to work with Clurgo?

When we were developing our CRM system, we worked with a Polish company that recommended we reach out to Clurgo. After meeting with them and discussing the scope of work, we felt comfortable in moving forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $50,000 and $100,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2015 and completed the initial project shortly after. Since then, we’ve decided to move forward on several upgrades to the app, and that work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since launching the apps, we’ve gotten a remarkable amount of positive feedback from our users. We’ve created very reliable and functional applications that people really seem to like.

How did Clurgo perform from a project management standpoint?

Over the course of the projects, we’ve communicated through chat, calls, email, meetings, and Google Hangouts. We used Jira for task management and feedback. Our work is in Swedish, which can sometimes be a challenge, but we speak in English while we’re working together. Some of their developers aren’t as proficient in English as others, but it’s never presented any major issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re dedicated to the project. If we end up in a critical situation, we can usually solve it very efficiently. There are always several ways to get in contact with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always some minor issues with communication and how to make the process as efficient as possible, but we’ve had no significant problems. They’ve been a great partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Think through the full scope of work you’re looking to complete, and make sure to convey it as clearly as possible.