Haefele Software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Operations of Fundhouse.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Fundhouse is an independent global fund adviser that provides specialized investment and business advice to independent financial advisers and institutions with the end goal being the best possible investment outcome for end investors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Haefele Software to accomplish?

Review current system architecture and propose a plan to address concerns around an aging codebase.

SOLUTION

How did you find Haefele Software?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Haefele Software over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Haefele Software were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The current system in place was based on older architecture, making it difficult to develop further and also build a team to support long-term (as an aging codebase doesn't lend itself well to attracting or retaining staff). The Business Exco was looking for an independent review of the full system architecture and, at the end of the review, provided a detailed report written for both the current architect and non-technical directors. 

This report was to focus on what needs to change and why, taking into account the current challenges we face (team and ability to implement change efficiently) plus the impact of a full redevelopment and what this would mean for the business from both a delivery and cost perspective.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The scope of work was relatively straightforward in that we were looking for a detailed report discussing the areas of the system that could/should be changed and why. The final report received needed to be written in a way that could be presented to 2 audiences, one technical (architect) and an anon-technical director.

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

The team as a whole was very communicative and very aware of progress reports that were needed along the way. I never had to chase them for an update, and these were always forthcoming.
What was your primary form of communication with Haefele Software?

Virtual Meeting

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

Given the nature of the work being undertaken, we were really impressed with the level of detail they got into during the project. It would have been easy to suggest a redevelopment to new technology by doing a lot less, but the team got very much into the detail, constantly checking back to our team with further questions and wanting to understand more about each additional element before they could comfortably consider the review complete.

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

Not in my opinion. We really enjoyed the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Digital Delivery of a wellness & fitness company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are Asia Pacific's largest group of corporately owned health and wellness clubs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Haefele Software to accomplish?

• Technical partner of the hand-over of one of our web and app products from a previous partner

SOLUTION

How did you find Haefele Software?

Referral

Why did you select Haefele Software over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Haefele Software were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Full hand-over and technical support during the cut-over process including: 

• Back-end Services Tech stacks: Microsoft C# .NET Core (Standard, 3.1, and 6.0) Next.js for server-side rendering of the client React application Front-end Tech stack: ReactJs Azure Services: Azure Function Apps for microservices (14) Azure Web Applications running: ESF Website Web API Phoenix CMS Coupon Tool Azure API Management as a gateway for microservices and Web API Azure Storage for CMS BLOB file storage (images and static content)

 Azure CDN and Edge nodes over CMS BLOB storage to improve content and static-content delivery performance Azure Cosmos DB for schema-less and non-relational data storage and retrieval Azure Cognitive Search for indexing and optimizing reads of Cosmos data Azure SQL Server for CMS pre-published records

 Azure Event Grid Domains to asynchronously store and process system and user-generated events following an eventual data consistency model Azure App Configuration for shared configuration management Azure Application Insights for telemetry, logging, and monitoring Azure Key Vault for securely managing secrets Azure DevOps: Automated Build and slot-based Deployment pipelines to support Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery best practices Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) for identity and access control to the stripe coupon generation tool 

Source Control and IaC (Infrastructure as Code): GitHub for source control Terraform for Infrastructure as Code deployments Supporting technologies and services: Cloudflare front door, maintaining domain resolution and routing, as well as custom rules and transforms 

• Mobile applications: iOS Native (Swift) Android (Kotlin)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Successful cut-over with a time-sensitive deadline, continued critical care support moving towards a maintenance model

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

Excellent communication, stakeholder management, timely raising of risks/issues. Took additional measures to ensure delivery as scheduled even in event of third-party dependencies adding additional challenges

What was your primary form of communication with Haefele Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We were amazed at their professional, knowledgeable, and experienced team.

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

No, project issues encountered were not related to Haefele team or way of working

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Head of Development at a pensions data company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We started working with Haefele in July 2022 to support us with developing a module within our new cloud-based platform.

SOLUTION

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

From our conversations with the team they had the right skills and mindset for the work we were undertaking. It was great to talk to the company owner and understand the strategy of Haefele and how they approach working with their clients.

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

The work involved liaising closely with the Product Owner to understand the business requirements and building a new module within our platform from scratch as well as integrating with an existing application. Since working on this initial module the team have also completed work on another existing module. The key technologies are .NET and AWS.

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

We started with a team of 3 developers – 2 back end and one front end. In the time we have worked with Haefele we have expanded up to 4 developers for periods depending on the need of the project in flight.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team have been really engaged in the project and have worked well alongside multiple teams working on the same platform and other products. If they don’t understand the requirement they probe to understand the business reason.

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

Haefele have adopted the tools we use in-house including Teams and Azure DevOps. We’ve followed an agile scrum process and they have engaged closely with the Technical Architect and Product Owner to estimate and plan the work required. We have regular retrospective sessions that they actively contribute to and identify improvements or efficiencies in ways of working.

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

Haefele had the skills and mindset we were looking for and have regularly sought feedback on how they are working. We have regular meetings with their Delivery Lead and the whole team are very open to discussions about doing things differently. They are very focused on continuous improvement.

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

Nothing to note

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a fully-fledged pharmaceutical company that manages various medical products in Africa; we handle everything from regulatory, marketing, distribution, promotion, and sales. I’m the commercial and business development director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Haefele Software?

We hired Haefele Software to create an app system to enable direct healthcare practitioner communication and engagement for one of our portfolios.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had an existing app, and Haefele Software reviewed it to see how we could develop it further. After the review, we decided it was better to redevelop the entire app, so we built it from the ground up. 

We worked closely with the team to do full concept development and new artwork and design development to bring unique dynamic aspects that would enhance user engagement. The mobile app is available for iOS and Android, and we also have a desktop version of the program. 

One part of the application has information on the product: what it does, the components, price, and clinical data behind it. The other part is the symptomology piece; an algorithm-based system that allows healthcare practitioners to select the type of conditions they have identified and diagnosed in the child they are observing. The algorithm will then come up with various selections of relevant infant formulas. 

What is the team composition?

Several team members have been involved in the backend, but we primarily work with Jonathan (Delivery Director) and Kyle (Business Analyst). 

How did you come to work with Haefele Software?

They were recommended by the previous development company that we worked with. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested roughly 500,000 rand (approximately $28,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

It started in December 2020, and we finished the first phase in December 2021. The partnership is ongoing because we're conceptualizing some new development in the apps.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s been a successful transition, and everything we set out to do has been done correctly. We are satisfied with the job in terms of the ease of transition and feedback from the field.

How did Haefele Software perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication has been very good. We don’t always hit our timelines, but Haefele Software’s communication is very effective, and we understand exactly why we aren’t hitting them. They run a project management program in the background, so we can jump in and look at their timelines and work execution. We have regular follow-up meetings to manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciate their transparency, communication, results, and friendliness in managing the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing we can come up with. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Be transparent in communication and maintain your timelines as a supplier because there have been times when we couldn't give the information on time from our end; this put some pressure on their timelines.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Cloudbooking. We provide a cloud-hosted solution that allows companies of all shapes and sizes to manage and utilize their space better. The product is a system; the portal and mobile app integrate with Outlook and Google to make booking a space in the workplace easier for the staff.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Haefele Software?

We were finding it hard to recruit staff directly into our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially engaged Haefele Software as our fractional CTO. We discussed our requirements and gave them an overview of our solution. They got to know the architecture and the team's key members, so they recommended some of their team members to work on our client projects.

Afterward, we added a few development resources to augment our teams and support us. They worked with our team to streamline the projects, translate them, and manage them through the lifecycle and testing. 

Overall, Haefele Software has helped us shape the structure of our new solution as we’ve rolled it out to clients and started to migrate clients onto it.

What is the team composition?

We’ve mainly worked with a senior frontend developer and a tech lead architect. At some point, we had seven teammates from their end, but we’re scaling down to five.

How did you come to work with Haefele Software?

The owner was friends with our COO.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay a monthly fee based on the amount of time they take. So far, we’ve spent about £250,000–£300,000 (approximately $303,000–$363,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in September 2022, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve streamlined our delivery process and made it more professional. We’ve also improved how we define and scope the development projects, as well as our ongoing process from testing to release management. Overall, Haefele Software has helped us with the technical structure of development and project delivery.

How did Haefele Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management and communication have been excellent. We primarily use Microsoft Teams and email for communication. We also use Confluence and Jira between our development teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been impressed with Haefele Software’s level of engagement and support and their knowledge. The team is very competent, professional, and committed. They’re embedded into our teams and work well together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything’s good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear and define the scope.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO for a non-bank financial company in Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Haefele Software?

We launched a pioneering product into the market to help Australian brokers with originating loan applications. The product was successful that we decided to expand its current development.

There were a lot of modules that were being used by third-party providers that we wanted to develop bespoke software for it. That immediately put a lot of pressure on our internal developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the start, we didn’t have a lot of wireframes or documentation that existed, but Haefele Software was very good at staging the project. We started with some business analysis to work alongside ours to produce those artifacts before they flexed up on the development side. It was a very collaborative approach and we found it worked extremely well for us.

What is the team composition?

We worked with eight team members from Haefele Software. We had one technical business analyst which supported our scrum master for running the agile process on their side. We were also supported by a tester and the remaining six were a mix of two tech leads, two senior developers, and the rest were junior developers.

How did you come to work with Haefele Software?

I did a global search for companies and we ended up selecting Haefele Software after a six-week intensive search for a partner. We were looking for companies that can provide flexible resources in particular with new and technical business analysis. We were also looking for .NET developers with some testing capabilities. With our Canadian expansion, we were looking for synergies and overlaps.

I was in contact with Alan (CEO) and had a discussion about the basic understanding of the engagement. We then evaluated them against competing providers and based on their language, capability, and reputation, determined that they would be an excellent partner for us.

One important reason was the fact that they had some very large financial services contracts as well as experience in financial services. They aligned very well with our values and purposes. There was a great synergy and we ended up selecting them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $180,000–$220,000 AUD. ($140,000–$170,000 USD)
  
What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Haefele Software from December 2017–February 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of work was outstanding. We had some challenges in the beginning as they were too focused on the quality and not on the speed that we were requiring. We had to bring them on board knowing that we were not expecting a hundred percent perfect product.

However, after synergies were reached, we ended up with a very good working rhythm and cadence. The quality and the expected time of releases were really well. 

How did Haefele Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t have an official waterfall type of project. We were using small agile and sprint methodologies where we release incremental features. From that perspective, we managed the expectations, backlog, and priorities on our side. We communicated through Microsoft Teams.

It was all done on a digital dashboard, which worked very well. We aligned and overlapped our working hours and didn’t have any issues. Because we were working on different time zones, it was a bit challenging at first, but we quickly found the rhythm within the first four–six weeks.  We had good two-way communication happening as well.

We’ve used Azure DevOps for scrum and storyboards. This was also Haefele Software’s digital dashboard to maintain and prioritize the backlog and work that needs to be done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There were two things I can think of and the first was Haefele Software’s communication. Unfortunately, when you go offshoring, a lot of times you struggle with getting people that can speak English. Our communication worked really well. Haefele Software’s used concepts and phrases closely aligned to the Australian English that we speak. It didn’t take a lot of time or effort to explain anything.

The second was their quality of work and their ability to communicate any differences and adjust quickly when we gave them feedback on things that we were not happy with. They were very collaborative and they genuinely listened to the client which was exceptional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to listen to them on what works and what doesn’t work for them because it’s important to understand their working rhythm as well. If there’s a synergy between their working rhythm and your working rhythm, you’ve already won 90% of the battle. The rest is planning and prioritizing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Specno is a leading mobile development agency, we use our experience in design and development to come up with solutions that best accomplish the underlying objectives of our business. I am one of the founders and directors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Haefele Software?

Haefele has deep experience in software development and the agile methodolgy. We used Haefele to build hybrid teams that were capable of servicing our clients. Haefele also ran workshops with our team maturing our processes and business offerings.

What were your goals for this project?

To put together a team as quickly as possible and to merge the best practices of the two companies to optimise workflow. We also wanted to understand how a bigger more established company did business and wanted to learn a lot from the Haefele team.

SOLUTION

How did you select Haefele Software?

The managing director has quite a passion for entrepreneurship and does a lot to support the community. He has spent several months informally supporting our company, we took it to the next level when we formalized a partnership and hired his developers for a contract.

Describe the project in detail.

The Haefele team was contracted to form part of the Specno team for a larger project. Before the project started the leads of each team met to discuss the best practices of each, and then developed a roadmap that would allow for the best collaboration. The Haefele team had familiarized themselves with the project before they got started and were able to hit the ground running.

What was the team composition?

I was working directly with their managing director, their CTO, their engineering lead acting as their project manager and the individual engineers. We worked together remotely and used slack to communicate for the majority of the work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our team not only completed their assigned project but the Haefele team left us with a debriefing document that coved a lot of our team needed to focus on after the project was done. It has been instrumental in us maturing our own processes and has greatly improved the quality of our engineering.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was great. Both teams were used to remote work and the Haefele team was very accomodating in adopting our communication style. Before the project even began they had been added to our slack channel, given access to the repo and familiarised themselves with the codebase.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Definitely the maturing of their opposition. It all felt very professional and you could see they had years of experience dealing with a large number of different projects. The extra little things I wasn't expecting made a huge difference to my perception of the company.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Big Inja Technologies, which was founded in 2004. It started within the event space but eventually evolved to accommodate any industry that utilizes barcodes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Haefele Software?

Shortly after smartphones became ubiquitous, we had a shift in direction. We decided to utilize smartphone cameras to scan barcodes, and I was looking for a development partner to execute this concept.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They conducted business analysis, where they examined available technologies to scope out the feasibility of our idea. Afterward, they launched into mobile and web development. They utilized existing technology for APIs but developed the bulk of the product from scratch. They relied heavily on Microsoft with SQL servers. On the mobile side, they worked with iOS and Android operating systems.

They replaced some of our enterprise systems and legacy software, building a new SaaS platform.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Alan (Owner). Throughout the engagement, we worked with several of his 50 developers. 

How did you come to work with Haefele Software?

I had conducted interviews in my search for a partner. Upon being introduced to Alan, I became his first client here in South Africa.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $60,000 – $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together in the fourth quarter of 2012 to the fourth quarter of 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped us future-proof what we build on older technology, and their work has positively impacted our business growth. Thanks to their help, we broke into an entirely new market, which is amazing. We enjoy many clients who continue to use our platform.

How did Haefele Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They are fantastic in this area, where we used tools like Jira to keep track. They excelled at both communication and documentation. I always felt confident and that I was in good hands.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very smart. They quickly grasped my goals and what the market required. They were also quick in adding value. They demonstrate the optimal balance of yielding both technical knowledge and emotional intelligence.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have anything substantive to say here.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be well-defined in your goals to get the most bang for your buck. Meet with them and scope out which teammates will work best with your own team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of the South African trade finance business of an international logistics company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We contracted Haefele Software to build a bespoke trade finance system which interfaced with the client and generated the necessary loan transactions and managed the entire workflow process from request through to loan settlement.

SOLUTION

How did you select Haefele Software and what were the deciding factors?

We were introduced to Haefele through an ex employee who at that time was working for Haefele Software.

The supplier was contracted to do a scope of the project and based on the programming language and technological solution proposed - as well as the agile development process followed, we selected Haefele Software to build the business management solution.

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

Haefele Software designed and developed a Microsoft Azure business management solution for this financial services business. They started with a scoping process which was started with workshops to unravel the workflows and specific challenges.

The scoping process was followed by process workflows - and a proof of concept build - before we started the production phase. The project was estimated to have a development lifespan of 7 months, however the project was under estimated in complexity and has taken nearly 16 months to complete.

The final product will automate our client transaction initiation through to settlement of the debt - and includes a Microsoft Power BI interface which generates a comprehensive dashboard view of the business.

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

There were 4 people in the core project team from Haefele Software i.e. a senior business analyst / project manager, a senior developer, a junior developer and an intermediate software quality assurance analyst.

The stability of the team was compromised in the first 6 months of the project, but the team that has finished the project has been superb - and have really grown in stature.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Project not yet live, however, the team that came together for the last 8 months has been superb - and we hope to engage with the same team in our new budget period commencing in 4 months time.

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

The project management has matured in the past 8 months and the current incumbent has understood our needs and priorities - and has bought the two teams together - and has communicated well under very difficult and unique circumstances.

Under the current Covid-19 situation, the interactions have all been via Microsoft Teams. Formal meetings and demonstrations were scheduled and held - as well as ongoing informal discussions to clarify immediate and specific needs.

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

We had direct access and engagement with the entire development team in the last eight months which made it easier for the entire team to be on the same page. The contribution of the developers to the ultimate solution in these engagements was immeasurable.

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

The scoping process needed to have been more detailed for this specific project as it was a new-build with no previous guidelines and only manual processes to emulate.

The initial business analyst was immature and had no project management skills, and as a result the core deliverables were missed. The Haefele team in place for the last 8 months rectified this initial misunderstanding - and if the budget allows, we would like to take the project to the next level.