Edvantis

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at a digital insurance advisor marketplace. We initially focused on auto and home and have expanded to other areas. We’re a product and engineering tech organization, driven to provide education and support for consumers and connect them with the right insurance carriers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edvantis?

We hired Edvantis to help support our QA efforts and our automation QA.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

On the manual side, because we’re a consumer site and need to support multiple browsers and also verify visual defects, they helped confirm general end-to-end workflows and use cases. They did visual regression and visual acceptance testing. The team also did smoke testing.

On the automation side, they helped automate the standard flows for end-to-end testing via Selenium in order to help increase the speed and quality of our deployments.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a team of four people. There may have been some account management support as well. 

How did you come to work with Edvantis?

I had actually worked with Edvantis at a previous company from 2006–2010. Prior to that in the early 2000s, I was at a company that was working with SoftServe, which Edvantis came out of.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2016, and the project ended around February or March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We tracked their work qualitatively and subjectively. The quality of the work they did was good, and they understood QA. The problems we had on our side were that, up until late in the relationship, we didn’t have anyone from our team dedicated to working with them, providing context, or helping to guide and manage the relationship. Instead, it was done by committee. Where we had shortcomings was typically in our communication to them and providing context. However, they understood and were able to capably automate flows that we communicated to them. 

How did Edvantis perform from a project management standpoint?

They were adequate, but there was room for improvement. They were very communicative about updates, changes, or anything that came up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This may be specific to us since I’ve had a relationship with them for many years now, but the personal care and attention set them apart. It felt like they cared about our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At the time, their knowledge of the English language could’ve been better. Some of our communication struggles occurred due to language barrier issues.

Any advice for potential customers?

Invest in the time to provide them with the context and communication to set them up for success. Auto insurance is different everywhere, but it’s completely different in Ukraine versus the US. That was an important lesson for us to learn. We needed to teach and communicate auto insurance but also other things, such as American culture. Expect to invest in that communication and context; that’s information they won’t know otherwise.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global head of an engineering company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edvantis?

We needed to scale our own activities externally.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Edvantis scaled our team with several developers and completed a number of different projects for us. For one project, they helped to develop control software for the renewable energy sector.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with four resources on their team.

How did you come to work with Edvantis?

We contacted them a couple of years ago. Before we started this project, we collaborated on a couple of minor projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in May 2017, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m proud of the project’s execution. They have educated and proactive developers. Their technical level allows us to collaborate well. It’s been easy to discuss the problems and find good solutions along the way.

How did Edvantis perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Microsoft Teams and follow an Agile methodology to run projects. We have in-person meetings and daily standups. They’ve integrated with us to become a part of our team. Their response time is great. They respond professionally and honestly, so nothing is hidden.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They share the same professional attitude towards their customers as we do. We have a cultural match.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had communication issues and a question that involved a specific individual. They could work on communication with a few of their employees.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t have any advice.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former VP of software operations for an asset performance software company. Our company provides services and software in the domain of asset performance management. We deliver a solution for  asset-intensive industries that need to manage complex assets. These are industries like oil and gas, food and beverage, metals and mining, and utilities.

We provide services and software so they can improve on the performance of their installation like production assets or other assets, but these are not to be confused with financial assets.

My role as vice president of software operations was to manage the software development departments. We have several software solutions, and I am responsible as a manager for these applications, from an R&D perspective, as well as customer support, assisting customers with all kinds of questions and organizations. I am also responsible for the delivery organization of our software which are the projects we do, implementing our software on the customer side.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edvantis?

We made a strategic decision to invest in a new series of applications. At that time, the existing application became more like the legacy system so we decided to not add new functionality to that software and keep it as is, and invest in our resources into new applications. Because of that strategic decision, we also started to think about outsourcing the maintenance activities to an offshore company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We dismantled our own team, and Edvantis took over all research and development (R&D) activities. They worked on one of the software solutions that our company brings to the market. In the first year and a half, they only resolved defects in the system and added minor features. More than a year ago, they started to work on a new project for the same system to build a web-based UI for the existing optimizer plus system. They used VB.NET, C++, and C#.

What is the team composition?

We have a team of two developers and one project manager.

How did you come to work with Edvantis?

After we made the strategic decision, we did research possible companies that could take over the R&D activities. We selected three or four companies and invited them to our office. I believe that Edvantis was one of the companies that had sent us an email that they were visiting our country and wanted to make an appointment. The CEO came with either the CTO, and after a very careful selection process, we chose to start working with them.

We had multiple representatives of outsourcing companies from India, Ukraine, from Romania as well as a company with Dutch presence and developers abroad. I populated a list of qualifications such as continuity, confidentiality, years of experience, and other things. I benchmarked all of those and also called references that were provided by these companies. All together with the benchmarking and reference phone calls made me decide to choose Edvantis.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began in August 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

If I can compare them to my own team, they are way more proactive. They also consider the quality of the software and scalability and performance a lot more. For us, Edvantis is a pair of hands and I am very happy with them.

They just do what we tell them to do. There are initiatives to refactor or seriously improve the legacy codes, and it is basically what we tell them to do. Sometimes when they raise an issue, if they come across a piece of code that is awful, they will suggest refactoring that, but it is very limited.

How did Edvantis perform from a project management standpoint?

Productivity is one metric that is pretty tangible. We have an agile development process where we follow the scrum methodology. At the start of every sprint, a plan is made for that sprint, and story points are calculated. Based on the story points, we can measure velocity so we can keep track of the overall productivity of the team.

The project is basically managed via the development workflow as we now work in two weeks sprints. We manage the project, but they have a project lead who takes care of the financial parts. If they want to discuss increasing the fees, we will have a conversation with him. If we discuss extending the team, he was the go-to person.

It isn’t expressed in a metric, but we also internally discuss the quality of the communication which is very important especially when we need to talk in a language that isn't our native language, English. It has gone very well. With outsource teams, there is a lot of difference in the quality of the communication, and we have experienced that with Edvantis as well. KPIs are productivity and the money that we spend. We keep track of all their hours and also the way that we collaborate

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do what we tell them to do, they never complain, and we can always reach them. They never refuse anything, which is very comfortable for us. They are really nice guys, although I am not the one who works with them on a daily basis. There is a product owner and two other people from our side that work with them on a daily basis and I think we are doing quite well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s not really their problem, but rather ours. By making the strategic decision to fully outsource, we became completely dependent on the quality of this team, and we had no second opinion. They started working and the work that they delivered was approved by us and also by our customers. The quality of the software, if you look at it from the outside, we and also our customers, are happy with the quality, but as we parted from our own team and we have no developers to check the quality of the code, it has become a black box for us. It works, but I don’t know if it is very stable or shaky so that is a risk. It would have been pretty difficult to prevent that. We don’t have the resources within our company to really review what they are doing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It depends on what you want. If you want an extra pair of hands, they are very good to go. If you want to seriously collaborate in a big project where they need to take a lot of initiative, it becomes a little more difficult, although I must say that these two developers that we work with are okay.

They comply with everything that we want, but if a company wants to do a completely new build of an application, I wouldn’t recommend to fully outsource it to any company. I would choose to have some of your own people as a senior developer, or an architect on-premise to constantly be able to judge the quality of the software base.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We create software and hardware for creative people. As Head of Development Services I was responsible for the continued development and maintenance of all shared software components used by all products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Edvantis?

Edvantis provided support and development services for new functionality for the key company products.

What were your goals for this project?

We had to scale development and maintenance of shared software components, in preparation of the transition to an Agile environment. Ensure the continued maintenance of shared software components by extending functionality and improve the quality for existing features.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We conducted a thorough assessment of multiple vendors considering factors such as technical skills, flexibility, communication and shared values, while offering competitive cost options.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Edvantis provided support and development services for new functionality for the key company products as well as maintenance and quality improvements of existing functionality.

What was the team composition?

Organization and planning were supported by a Business Analyst who served as my primary contact. Each development team consisted of 2-4 Developers and a QA Engineer. We later added a Product Designer for one of the teams working on User-facing functionality.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The teams allowed us to implement a variety of functionliaty and improve quality in a field of expertise that was hard for us to find talent for. It also allowed internal teams to migrate to an Agile way of working while development of essential functionality continued.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Concrete Project Management of the team was facilitated by our Project Managers. Our Business Analyst at Edvantis was available for strategic planning and reporting and served as a bridge to facilitate the later Agile transition of the Edvantis team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The flexibility to change fast and cater to our needs with low bureaucratic hurdles, as well as the shared values fit and spirit to get stuff done.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The speed of adding additional staff to the team with special skills was suitable to our needs, but could've been faster, for our liking.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former CFO of TechniSat R&D which is a consumer electronics company in Germany.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edvantis?

An HMI needed to be reworked in all of our television sets. The old one was 10 years old. It had to be completely new, and scale 10 to 15 years of development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did the frontend work which was the QML programming of the whole HMI. We did the backend which were the programs that were operating the system and they took care of the visual aspect. As part of the concept, we had design and functionality documentation that they then implemented.

What is the team composition?

In the top range, we had between 8–10  people.

How did you come to work with Edvantis?

We knew Ukraine was well-positioned for nearshoring. I can’t remember how I found them specifically. We screened the market and contacted them. We visited the companies we were interested in and Edvantis won the competition.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $200,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in 2017 and ended in 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

What they delivered was well-received. The feedback we got about the quality of their work was so positive. It was really amazing, and I would not have anticipated such positive feedback from the whole team.

How did Edvantis perform from a project management standpoint?

We were working with a scrum and agile project management. We had daily stand-up meetings to review the code and to check it into our system. They are very professional.

It’s easy to see that they have done lots of projects and that they need to perform well. They are highly professional in all types of project management. They have clear and strict guidelines on how to approach a project which helped a lot in kicking it off right.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say quality throughout all the levels, from the software developer to the project management, to the CTO and CEO. They were all high quality. Not only from the professional side, but it was quite positive and open-minded as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could move all their people here to Germany. There is nothing in particular that annoyed me, or at least nothing that I can remember.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just a general thing regarding nearshoring, but you have to have a clear plan on what you want to have developed because they always require a fixed set of what they have to do otherwise they won't start it because most projects end as a mess which is something most companies can’t afford.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Martin Walther, FSD Fahrzeugsystemdaten GmbH. Head of Commercial Management, Legal

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire New Peak Solutions?

Structuring of ODX data for using it for our internal process.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a software development partner, didn´t signed them but later realized they did data engineering too.

Describe the project in detail.

Edvantis helped us develop a usable searchable data structure for ODX data.

What was the team composition?

One person, data engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Process enhancement.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their communication was always pretty good, and they adhered to the timing and budget as we agreed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of ATR. We supply digital procedure lifecycle software to high-risk, highly regulated industries. We’re focused on the lifecycle of operating procedures so that workers get the job done safely.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edvantis?

We wanted to have an independent testing organization that would be adjunct to our own internal testing organization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Edvantis provides independent testing of various software modules, including low testing to verify that lots of people can access the software at the same time. They do conflict testing which involves looking at errors and checking the general usability, as well as helping to ensure that there aren’t bugs in the software or delays that could frustrate the end-user. 

We have 2–3 major releases per year, as well as some intermediate fixes. So, Edvantis is constantly looking at the software in different environments, different user stories, and giving us feedback so that our programmers can make corrections as needed.  

We were developing a product geared towards the COVID-19 virus and they did some low testing since it was going to be a public-facing iOS and Android mobile app. They volunteered to do the testing at their own cost to help people.

What is the team composition?

We work with 2–3 teammates.

How did you come to work with Edvantis?

Their president was visiting Houston and set up some time to meet with us. We liked what we heard and felt that Edvantis had the capability to do what we needed and to ramp up very quickly. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $1 million of the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Edvantis about 12 years ago, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They routinely uncover issues and questions. Additionally, the team continuously provides feedback and has good communication skills. They work with our QA team to make sure that the information is tracked.

How did Edvantis perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well. The team works under the direction of our QA manager, Philip Tao. He monitors their progress to make sure that they’re on target with what he needs. Edvantis has done a great job of the requirements from a project perspective.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of communication sets them apart. We’ve had great cooperation through the entire history of our working with them. We don’t have much experience with other testing organizations, but our relationship with them has been highly successful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no specific issues with them at this time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to understand their business model and capabilities. They have a variety of assets that could be used by software companies. We’ve been focusing on the testing aspect, but for companies looking to outsource, Edvantis has other capabilities that they can offer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an e-commerce platform and we serve about 60,000 clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edvantis?

We had expensive development resources, and we had various projects that we thought Edvantis could do for a more affordable price.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought them on for an aggressive product roadmap. Over time, they took on more and more responsibilities, especially around our payment integrations, our payments partners. They were integrated with our team.

What is the team composition?

We worked with between 30–50 people. It became a pretty big team.

How did you come to work with Edvantis?

They worked with my CTO at a past company. We worked on similar project then. They’re technically advanced, so they could work on extensive projects. They do a good job of retaining their teams and their developers are very knowledgeable and experienced.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $1 million–$10 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from June 2016–March 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were subject to the KPIs we use to measure our internal team performance. They have a strong work ethic, they were committed to the deliverables, and they took it very seriously. If we didn’t acquire an internal team, we’d still be working with them. I’m always happy to recommend them and would like to work with them again.

How did Edvantis perform from a project management standpoint?

One of our directors managed them and treated them like members of our team. So they were very engaged and integrated with our team. They’re very proud of their work. The bigger the project, the more engaged they were. Unlike some other teams I’ve worked with, they want to be challenged.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They want their leaders to be entrenched in our business. They never hesitated to send their team to our offices to make sure the integration project went smoothly. They were very proactive on that front. Even post-integration, they were very engaged. They also didn’t have much turnover, so they were very reliable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I was pleased with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to engage with your team. Treat them as one of your own dev teams, and they’ll respond really well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering and operation for oil and gas analytics company in the energy market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edvantis?

There are just never enough good developers. From our perspective, getting teams with a wide variety of skills ramped up quickly is always hard to do. Additionally, one of the things we like is to have multiple time zones so we can work a little faster. We can run shifts and develop quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We mostly do development and QA support across our products, with a mix of mobile development, .NET, and the occasional build. They’re to build analytics and data platforms.

What is the team composition?

It varies, we probably have 30–40 people working on our project right now.

How did you come to work with Edvantis?

I’ve worked with them on previous jobs and brought them in based on the excellent experiences I’ve had in the past.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2017, and we’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have very highly skilled developers and QA. When we think about offshore, and Edvantis, we’re not looking at a cost model. We’re looking at a global development team with the ability to do anything we need.

How did Edvantis perform from a project management standpoint?

Normally, we manage the projects and we have them with blended teams. So one developer would be in our office, so we act like they’re an employee. We’ve had a few local developers, and they’re great. We prefer people who are tied in with the business.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve always found them to be attentive and they have very good attention to detail. The structure has made it so they participate in our standups and our agile flows. They’re an extension of our normal workforce.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re really good, which is why we brought them on for multiple projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Integrate your teams.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is Oasis Corporate Housing. We provide short term rentals that are turnkey for B2B stays for people moving, relocating, working on projects where they need housing for a temporary basis. I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edvantis?

We were working to create an automated marketplace that we could use as a value-added tool for our clients. We wanted to be able to show them that we are accessing all of the best available temporary housing options in various markets around the world.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re practically a division of our company at this point. They started by developing a property database that syncs with our website and is integrated with markets all around the world. Then, they automated the process flow for client requests. It transfers information from our clients to the suppliers that meet their location requirements using geolocation. Based on an address or point of interest, it will automatically link users with the providers in that area, making is very easy to make an offer on the available property. In turn, providers are also able to see what each client is looking for.

It has an interface that we’re all used to, similar to a shopping cart. Then users can book through that feature, automatically taking that option off the market and informs the supplier that it has been booked.

The system retains a lot of data that is useful for our corporate clients’ reports. With the click of a few buttons, they can see where their employees are. For example, in the COVID-19 outbreak, they can use this feature to find out where their employees are and how to get them home.

What is the team composition?

We have 8–9 full-time developers.

How did you come to work with Edvantis?

I was contracting with a local company that was then outsourcing to Edvantis, who was being billed at 20% the rate I was paying the other company. I thought that this was crazy, I can’t spend that much money on development when I can contract with Edvantis directly instead.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $1 million– $1.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017 and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Continuing to innovate using technology is a priority for us, so we’ll continue to keep them in our budget. We’ve created a good partnership and I try to refer others to them. They’ve done a phenomenal job.

How did Edvantis perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is phenomenal. I can’t speak highly enough of the project manager and the rest of the team.

We have one internal team member that runs the software development from a business perspective that coordinates with them. They meet 2–3 times a week using video conferencing. Prior to our engagement, we had several people warn us not to outsource, but we haven’t faced any of the pitfalls associated with an overseas team.

When they're full time, they became invested part of our company. And so just like how we would train anybody you hire, we have to spend some time training them to understand our business.

They’re proficient in English, so we don’t have to worry about communication. Development walks the line between being methodical and being artistic, so I try to give them the time they need to get things done right. If there’s client demand, I’ll communicate that to them, but we trust them to be professional and work in a timely manner.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

I trust them as experts in development. The price point in Ukraine versus the US is much lower, so we can hire 8–9 developers rather than 1–2 developers. As a result, they can finish projects very quickly.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would like some guidance on metrics we should track to determine if we’re performing below expectations, meets expectations, or exceeds expectations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You have to give them a little bit of space to create a masterpiece, and make sure you have a good project manager. Interview who they would potentially put on your team as a project manager or lead developer. The success of these projects is closely related to who you get in that role, so assess their commitment, how long they plan to be in that position, and really, how you would hire internally for that position.