Arcanys

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of LeaseSuite, a property technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

We needed software development resources for the frontend and backend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Arcanys has built our software from scratch. We already had design prototypes of the software we wanted to develop. A digital design consultant further developed and prototyped our idea, so Arcanys took it on board to develop it.

There’s ongoing web design work regarding prototyping and coding using Figma. When we want to look at different frontend designs and test different workflows, we can jump straight in with the team to code it. They also have a team member who can design and test the prototype, like we originally did. Based on that, the team can code it once we provide feedback.

The software is a portfolio management solution for tenants who occupy space outside of commercial real estate. It consolidates and displays all lease liabilities, including cost and critical dates, such as expiries, rent reviews, different option terms, and extracts, like key lease clauses. Overall, it takes out all key information from commercial leases and displays it on the platform. Another module is dedicated to lease procurement so tenants in commercial markets can source new leases and sites.

What is the team composition?

We have a part-time Scrum master, who is like a project manager, three full-time front- and backend developers, a QA tester, and a part-time DevOps engineer who oversees the development, coding, and building of the software and interacts with me and the CTO to test it.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

We initially ran a process to try to source several competitive developers in Asia to develop the product. We first went with another developer in Bangkok. My CTO and I were split; I always wanted to go with Arcanys, but he wanted to go with the other group because their sales presentation was a bit more polished.

At the time, I told my CTO that I didn’t care how polished the sales presentation was; the crucial part was doing the work, so I was skeptical about the other group in Bangkok. In the end, my gut feeling and skepticism were correct because the group was good but not good enough. Although we were only 2–3 months in, it was enough time for us to realize that they weren’t the right partner for the long term.

I contacted Frederic (Co-Founder, President, and head of Growth) from Arcanys and told him we had made the wrong decision. If they were still interested in working with us, we could trench across the work that we’d done to date and start working with their team. Frederic was open to that.

The process was extensive and took a lot of intense work and organization. Arcanys was absolutely fantastic in working with us and ensuring the transition occurred smoothly. Then, they picked up the coding from there. 

Ultimately, we jumped to Arcanys, who were still interested in working with us. It was one of the most important decisions we’ve made to date, but they were great in helping us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $400,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We initially engaged them in May 2023, and the team is still working with us. We only see the size of the team growing in the next couple of years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve just launched to market, so I can’t comment on metrics. We know we’re in a launching phase, so there’ll be changes and things we notice we can fix, but there are no issues. Arcanys has built our second product, the procurement module, quite quickly. I plan on using it as a consultant, so even though I’m the founder, I’m also the first customer of that particular product. I think it’ll operate smoothly and make a lot of difference. We’ll see in 12 months.

Moreover, we see Arcanys as a long-term partner, and I’ve made sure that the founders know that. We also ensure that the core team knows we see our growth and success being on the same journey as their journey with us. We wouldn’t do that if we didn’t think they were right for us.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is perfect. Arcanys has completely partnered with us. Their comprehension is impressive. If you haven’t worked in real estate before, it can be pretty tricky to understand why we do what we do and the way the system works.

I’m not a technical person, so I don’t communicate daily with them. If I need to speak with someone, it’s usually the founders, so I just email them. Additionally, my CTO uses Jira, an Atlassian product.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Vincent (Software Developer) and another developer are really strong and make a big difference. They often add value and get good feedback from the CTO, who works with me in Sydney. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Before we decided to go with the other group, Arcanys was as skeptical about taking on our project as we were about taking them on. We know they don’t take on any work they can find; they’re quite selective with their clients. That demonstrates they’re serious about quality and the project they’re working on.

Moreover, their hiring policy is quite strict because many people let junior or average developers slip through the cracks, but that isn’t the case with Arcanys.

Another impressive trait is that they assign developers to projects when they’re on the bench rather than letting them sit doing nothing. Arcanys lets them keep learning, so they put the developers on teams free of cost. We recently had a developer who had nothing to work on; he was offered to us to keep finetuning his skills and work with our business. We had him for free for 4–5 months, which significantly impacted our speed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I only have one slight criticism. In my experience, all software developers could improve on something: they can get a little protective of their staff if we mention that the speed is lacking or some areas need more attention. They might say that the developer is doing his best, and we acknowledge that. However, I think it’s important to try to address the customer feedback, even if you disagree with it.

Although it isn’t an issue specific to Arcanys, and it might be cultural or cross-boundary differences, it’s common for software developers to behave similarly. They get protective of their environment, but sometimes there’s something in what we’re telling them, and they should listen.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice to anyone coming on board is to ensure that you come prepared, ask many questions, and give them time to fully understand the process, approach, and why things are the way they are. As long as you give them time and come prepared, you can learn a lot and get a lot of value back from them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the co-founder and one of the directors of Catalyser, a software platform based in Australia. We provide software for organizations to manage their corporate social responsibility and employee community activity programs. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?
We needed software development support, and Arcanys provided us with developers and testers to build our software product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
Our team needed full-time engineers, and Arcanys helped us source those engineers to work on our projects. We gave them our requirements, such as the engineering skills we needed, the level of experience, and time commitment.
At present, the resources are still working on our product, which is an AWS-based corporate social responsibility management software.
What is the team composition?
We work with three teammates from Arcanys.
How did you come to work with Arcanys?
I originally contacted Arcanys to see if they were interested in our software as we scaled up our product. In the course of those conversations, we explored opportunities for them to provide us with services.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve committed to spend $250,000 on the project.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with them in January 2023, and the partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our engagement with Arcanys has been a five-star experience. They’ve been responsive, and the team has been great. When we faced challenges or feedback, they addressed them first. As a result, we’re truly happy with the relationship.
How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?
Everyone on their team is great. We truly love working with them. The project manager manages the team well and has been able to meet our expectations and deadlines. For tools, the Arcanys team is on our internal Slack channel. We use the Atlassian suite of products, such as Jira and Confluence.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They’re highly involved and understand our business. They act like a true part of our team, which works well. Their level of English is good, and they accommodate our time zone even if we’re in Australia.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there aren’t any. We’re truly happy with our work with them.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Provide clarity around the scope of work and the type of services, skill sets, and quality you require from the staff. On top of that, be timely in giving feedback. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Manager of a utility company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Utility Monitoring Application for Enterprises

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Arcanys to accomplish?

• Improve the scalability & UX of our online web application.

SOLUTION

How did you find Arcanys?

Referral

Why did you select Arcanys over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Arcanys were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Arcanys has been the key driver for the development of our online web application for both the back end and front end. Arcanys has managed the complete technical aspect of our business, where product requirements are handed to the development team which then scope out the work, develop& test the features, and manage the deployments.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

A recent redesign of our web application was successfully developed in a timely & cost-effective manner. Keeping to internal KPIs, Arcanys managed to modernise our application, providing a scalable system for future developments.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The Arcanys developers have generally been very responsive in their development times. A recent move to an agile sprint-based project management system has allowed for increase transparency, where the team usually picks up any foreseeable issues early on.

What was your primary form of communication with Arcanys?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Arcanys' holistic approach to development has been impressive, where we are able to reliable trust them to handle most of the technical aspects of ourproduct.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Patienteer, a healthtech company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

We hired them for software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We’ve outsourced our software team to Arcanys. They provide us with front- and backend software developers who use SQL table and PHP.

What is the team composition?

I’m mainly in touch with Arcanys’ management team and the developers. 

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

We found them through our CTO, who recommended Arcanys because he was working in the Philippines at the time. 

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in September 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Measuring success is about the quality of Arcanys’ work and the timing of getting it done. Overall, they’re pretty on top of things from my end. We’ll continue to work with them.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent at communication and meeting deadlines. We typically communicate through email, phone calls, and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Arcanys’ management team is very responsive, ensuring we’re happy with their service. At the staff level, Arcanys vets their team members; they’ve very good at recruiting good quality resources. Moreover, they look after their staff, giving them perks and benefits, which is attractive to us because that attracts a good caliber of resources. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

At the moment, I don’t think there are any areas they need to improve on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Arcanys is very flexible with the billing, so they’re an excellent company to work with. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a company that creates websites for florists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

A lot of florists don’t have websites for selling bouquets online. We wanted to create an e-commerce platform that enables florists to list themselves on the Google Ads platform and not other wedding sites.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Arcanys built an Angular template-based system that helps florists create a new website in just a few minutes. We integrated it with Google Ads so we could control Google Ads and what they’re selling online. It serves a sales platform that fits into a florist’s business.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Eric (Senior Web Architect) and Jill (Project Manager). We had a team of eight developers, which we reduced to five once we started.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

I went to the Philippines for a call center solution at my former business. While I was there, I searched IT vendors as well and found Arcanys on Clutch. They looked like they had a good history and background. We met up to chat through the business and we hit it off pretty well. When I started my new business, they agreed to work with me again.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020, and we launched in January 2021. Our work is ongoing with little tweaks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their quality is impeccable. There hasn’t been a time where they haven’t made the deadline. Our customers enjoy the solution as well, which fills our business objectives. There haven’t been any serious bugs; on the whole, they’re a good team.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

I talk with Eric on a senior level a couple of times a week. I speak with Jill on a daily basis. I also speak with the wider team every two weeks. As part of the process, I have a session with Jill and Eric on what we’re going to build. Then, Jill breaks that plan down into sprints. Next, she discusses it with the wider team. They always deliver on my expectations. I have access to shared Slack and Jira channels.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re great from a budget and quality perspective. I’ve managed my own in-house team before, and it’s a nightmare. They do a good job all around. Their openness and their ability to listen stand out. They really spend time to understand us and the objectives of our business, which is quite unique.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend Arcanys to anyone. They’re a good team that’s worth getting to know. I can’t think of a better team to work with if you want software built. They have a full range of employees that can develop or design.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Digital Earth Network. We are a software platform, working to pull ERP data from systems of companies that have reps in the field.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

We were looking for a partner to develop a multi-tenant software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a multi-tenant software for multiple platforms. They are involved in every aspect, including testing.

The system manages ERP systems, providing up-to-date data for reps in the field to use. There is a GPS check-in to verify how long a rep is on-site, performs gap reports, and has some digital marketing tools. There is also a CRM component to log texts and calls, store photos, and more. It also provides digital assets, including brochures, videos, product sales, info, and results. 

What is the team composition?

There are eight or nine people working with us at any given time, including a project manager, UI designer, UX designer, and lead developers/engineers. Different parts of the team are involved at different points of the project.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

We had worked with a couple vendors who couldn’t complete the work we required. We were considering a few companies, and were impressed with what we saw in the philosophy of this company. Our CTO went to the Philippines to meet with them in person, and found them to be knowledgeable and capable, and they worked in Agile and Scrum.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost so far is between $400,000 - $450,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around July 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They did very thorough testing, including pushing the software beyond expected demand prior to launch to ensure it would hold up. They fix any bugs that are found and work effectively.

The platform is consistent, and meets our clients’ objectives. Each client’s ERP system can be slightly different, and the team takes time to be thorough with each one. Our clients are extremely happy with the work. They’re a dream team.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

They are an elite team. Per our request, they restrict us to best practices, keeping us on track, with a laser-focus. We follow strict Agile methodology, have daily scrum calls, and bi-weekly reflective calls to discuss ways to improve. We use Jira for tickets and backlogs, and Slack for daily communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re results-oriented, focusing more on solutions and outcomes rather than the problem itself. They constantly look to empower the team, and encourage open brainstorming with no egos, regardless of the team member’s seniority. It is quite refreshing. I love working with Arcanys; they’ve become part of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Define your project. They do quality work and are willing to bring in people from all levels to speak into the project and find solutions, as needed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

International Content Director / National Networks Manager with Office Media market leader Executive Channel Network, who have digital signage networks and operations in Sydney, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Atleast 5 different management applications were designed and developed by Arcanys to provide the necessary capabilities required to aggregate, segment and distributes live data from a diverse range of media suppliers including news, weather, financial hubs and social media APIs.

Additionally, a further 50+ intelligent content applications have been designed and developed for daily operation across 5 markets.

SOLUTION

How did you select Arcanys and what were the deciding factors?

Following a review process of several vendors combined with a recommendation from an industry colleague, Arcanys was shortlisted based on breadth of technical capabilities, sensible costings, and a fiercely positive approach to innovation.

Knowing that a successful project partnership would lead to an ongoing relationship of development we were very fortunate to find a tech partner who was thoroughly trust worthy and shared common values.

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

ECN's ambitious dev schedule for product development required expertise across multiple technologies including;

• .NET
• HTML5
• JS
• SQL
• PHP and more.

Our projects were largely understood from legacy systems and processes which had been brought together piecemeal over many years but needed to undergo fresh development.

Our Arcanys team implemented our refined workflows and automated processing requirements which has alleviated the need for strong technically minded resources to manage daily operations, instead offering capabilities that can be easily controlled and configured by largely non-technical resources.

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

2 x HTML5/JS Developers ( Senior and Mid level), 1xPHP/Symphony (Mid level) , 1x .NET/SQL (Senior)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

ECN's Source Content Aggregation and delivery is expected to run without interruption (24/7 365 days a year) across 5 international networks, 600+ unique asset locations, combining data from more than 30+ API suppliers, on a daily basis and even more during advertising campaigns which utilise dynamic triggers for a customised audience experience.

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

ECN Project manages all aspects of product development with Arcanys team members in the same style as would be used with our own local resources. Additional inputs on occasion from Arcanys Scrum masters / Team leads proves helpful where meeting schedules are sometimes interrupted.

JIRA is used extensively for allocation of Tasks, Planning and Timesheeting and has been a brilliantly simple and clear layer of transparency ongoing.

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

No pun intended, but Arcanys' unique ability to be a Swiss army knife of services reduces the need to engage multiple suppliers, which saves time, simplifies project spend, reduces communication burdens and improves our agility when kicking off new initiatives.

But perhaps of even greater value is their 'can-do' attitude and relentlessly positive view of the work.

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

There are always areas for improvement in our business and processes. Arcanys as a partner join us in that responsibility and noticeably are proactive in improving communication, transparency and technical expertise. This has been a key differentiator in their style over other suppliers.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Register Now is a SAAS company providing Event Registrations for mass participation based events in the Australiasia region. I am the owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Arcanys?

Arcanys was initially hired to supplement our internal development team.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were twofold - to attempt to build our team in a cost-effective manner with talented people, and to gain access to other technical resources on an as-needed basis.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We developed an initial 'test' project that we sent to a number of potential providers that we had shortlisted. We agreed on payment and time frames with 4 providers to complete the project. Not only did the Arcanys team take the time to understand the brief, but they completed it ahead of schedule and provided shippable code that we were able to implement into our platform immediately.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project is an ongoing one where the technical resources Arcanys provides are working on our core platform offering. We build in dot net have had very high information security and PCI compliance processes which the team has been able to work comfortably within.

What was the team composition?

We have a number of developers, architects, BA and QA's at Arcanys working with us on an ongoing basis. The team works closely with the product team in based in Australia on a daily basis. After some good successes with Arcanys, we have gradually increased our team size with Arcanys and are likely to continue to do so.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Register Now was struggling to find talent at a reasonable rate. We have managed to do that with Arcanys. This has allowed us to concentrate local resources on building the business and growing our customer base which we are doing faster than ever.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We use Azure DevOps to manage our backlog and releases. Our communication is constant and we utilize Slack for internal chat and Google Hangouts daily standups and video calls as required. We find the brief daily stand up at the start of the day to be a very effective way of keeping the team on track.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We have had no turnover with the team we have been building with Arcanys over three years. This is a testament to the management team's efforts to provide an extremely positive workplace for the employees. The Arcanys employees are some of the happiest that I've experienced.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We constantly review our processes with our team at Arcanys and have found the team very responsive to this process. Time zones can prove an issue occasionally, especially during daylight savings, however, on request the team have been willing to adjust accordingly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the CTO at Reorg, a financial media, data, and technology company. We have an editorial team that writes about complex topics within the legal and finance world. We also have a technology platform that houses the content that are editorial team writes and several database and workflow tools that our clients use. We offer a variety of products that cover a wide range of needs, including distress debt, bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, pharmaceutical patent litigation, and other complex topics that investors, lawyers, and financial institutions would be interested in.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

We have an in-house development team that’s part of a larger technology team. We’ve also had an outsourced team in Ukraine since the inception of the company. We were looking to add another set of developers to broaden the kinds of projects that we could work on. Also, from a geographic perspective, we wanted to give ourselves a footprint in Asia to have somewhat of a 24-hour operation going.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We treat our three developers from Arcanys as an extension of our in-house team. We don’t siphon them off to certain projects, and there’s no middle person that manages communication between our outsourced developers and our in-house team. Our in-house team gives them a variety of tasks, from small bug fixes to large, multi-month projects.

Most of their work has been done in PHP using the Laravel framework. They also use MySQL for work on our primary database and MongoDB for larger data sets. They’ve helped with implementing ElasticSearch on our frontend search function, as well as development in Vue.js for the frontend framework.

What is the team composition?

The team is composed of three full-time developers. We have a person here who directly manages those three developers.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

I did a pretty extensive search and worked with a firm that matches companies with outsourced developers. I was introduced to several different firms and did interviews with the people that I'd be working with at those firms. I happened to find Arcanys outside of that.

I was looking at and doing interviews with a bunch of different firms, and Arcanys was the one that stood out the most. I gave each potential developer a test, and Arcanys scored better than everyone else. Also, from a communication perspective, they were really good. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them during July 2017, and the relationship is currently ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any quantitative evidence, but we’re in the process of releasing a large project that they’ve been working on. It’s an internal workflow tool that they built for us. So far, the launch has been going very well, and I consider that a testament to the great work that they put into the project.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

The person on our team who manages their developers is a developer himself, so communication tends to be very good. They’re much more responsive than other outsourced teams that I’ve worked with, and that helps quite a bit. The time zone difference is challenging, especially for the person on our team who manages them, but they have regular calls and use Slack to stay up to date.

Usually, the developers will send a nightly update describing what they did during the day. That way, we know exactly what they did for us each day. Most of this communication happens over Slack, which has worked very well for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed by their ability to learn new technology on the fly. From what I know, Arcanys is a great place to work, and it seems like they heavily invest in their employees. This shows in the work product that they provide.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think so. Their work is generally very, very good. The toughest part is probably the time zone, but I'm not sure that there's any viable solution there. We’re figuring out ways to make that work as much as possible. But I'd say, for the most part, they’re excellent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, I don’t think I do.