Intellias

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a product manager of an IT services company. We provide services for third party members.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We are working on an energy management system app which is growing and facing new technologies and challenges. We needed to grow and to include additional team members. It was difficult to find new team members here in Germany that fit our team, which is one of the reasons we wanted to try an offshoring approach.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have two teams working for a huge energy company. One team is based in Munich and the second team is Intellias. Intellias purely takes care of the frontend. We are utilizing Ext JS as well as additional APIs and frameworks.

We are still bound to Ext JS, but this will likely change soon because there are also some mobile challenges in the near future, and we might completely rewrite everything in a different framework.

What is the team composition?

We have six team members working on the project. I am the middle man and play the role of a product owner and technical proxy.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

We found them through consultants here that have experience with offshoring.

How much have you invested in them?

We have a monthly cost of €30,000–€35,000 ($36,738–$42,873).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in 2012 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They had a huge impact. The collaboration provided a lot of backend-focused capacities which we can utilize differently. A lot of tasks were transferred to Intellias, which was done well in a reliable way. The quality of the outcome has been great.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

They utilize Jira to help our development process as we are all dealing with Scrum.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the most impressive things is their amazing team spirit and engagement. I have loved working with them every day for the last five years. During stressful phases, they are just as engaged. Sometimes additional work is needed, and they are always reliable.

It seems more usual that people change jobs all the time, but this isn’t the case for us. We’ve only had a couple of changes, but in general, it has been very stable and all the people there have been part of the team for a long time and want to stay there for the long term. Their team has evolved as an offshoring provider. We haven’t regretted trying an offshoring approach with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have identified points of improvement in terms of team collaboration, but we are constantly working to improve the things we identify. For example, at a workshop here in Munich with all the team members, we identified improvement possibilities as well as the next steps in how to resolve them; we plan to have another workshop in the spring. We work very well together. Any issues are addressed and solved together.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company provides an online platform for creating content that you can then embed into different websites and blogs. We develop different kinds of web apps to provide solutions for our clients, most of our whom are publishers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

It wasn’t just a specific project; we needed to increase the development capacity of our in-house teams. We needed a team that can deliver different types of apps once we give them ownership of a specific area.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We give them a chance to be a part of everything that we do. Most of our products are web-oriented. Some of the technologies we’ve used include JavaScript, Angular, Node.js, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Angular 1.6, and Angular 4. We use Microsoft Access on the backend and develop the architecture on Jenkins, including CI/CD [Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery] testing. Aside from our public products, they also work on back-office development for our internal systems, including ones that handle all of the traffic for our service desk.

What is the team dynamic?

We currently have 3 teams: frontend, backend, and monetization. Since it’s important for us to get the best people, we’ve developed a recruitment process that’s right for us. So far, we have hired 8 people, about 1 developer every 3–8 weeks.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

After conversations with 3 different companies, we chose Intellias because they seemed professional and flexible enough to meet our demands. We were impressed by the way they introduced themselves and described their services, which gave us the feeling that they would be the best way for us to build the team and get support. For us, special requirements like a dual-branded office were really important, and they offered to fulfill them. Also, their team was just the right size for our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February of this year, and the engagement is ongoing. We started to recruit developers in March.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their developers are excellent, and the quality of the code is really good. This was one of our initial concerns because remote teams sometimes don’t provide good quality. Fortunately, we’ve been amazed by their skills and feel confident about giving them projects that involve our core business.

While the relationship isn’t perfect, it takes time to understand the challenges of working with a remote team. We know that we have to invest a lot of effort in the communication, including flying over there often. Their developers also visit our office in Israel.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

They don’t really manage projects for us. Instead, they are part of the project that we manage here in Israel. For projects involving the development of services and apps, everything is smooth in terms of timeliness and quality. However, projects like integration have a tendency to be delayed because they require a lot of communication. We set up meetings in the morning to do dailies, and they participate in our weekly meetings.

We basically treat them like our employees—for example, we send them birthday gifts. It’s not easy, but it’s always important to make them feel like they belong and share our vision. We want to get them into the process and not just outsource what we want to build. As a result, they are more committed to the work and understand the business better.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their key strength is their people. They are a good fit with our culture and collaborate well with our internal teams. It’s really fun to work with them, and we feel that they are part of our team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s best to trust them and share the big picture. Initially, we didn’t feel fully confident so we assigned some tasks to our internal staff instead, which made them more passive about things. This is something that we’re working on, and we’ve seen some improvement as we share more information.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m CTO [chief technology officer] at a company that works to help companies adopt and utilize software they’ve purchased. We have a software platform that helps drive users to engage with the features that are there. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We needed help affordably scaling a development team. We didn’t know whether we should scale it in-house or outsource it. If we were to outsource it, we didn’t know if we should keep it in the U.S. or offshore it as we were very skeptical of a lot of places that we could offshore to.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with 1 to 2 people and the team has continued to grow every year at a reasonable rate. It took a while to get over our cultural differences and have them understand our company and how the U.S. thinks and what our expectations are. We got there and it’s been fine. 

We’re a Microsoft.NET stack and 100% Microsoft Azure. It’s everything from the Azure SQL, SQL analysis services, through all the Azure core services, Azure media services, backend developed in C#.NET platform. The frontend there’s a lot of JavaScript for our platform; both Angular and React frameworks.

What is the team dynamic? 

The one thing that has made it work is they’re not a black box. We know every single member of their company and speak with them. They’re like FTEs [full-time equivalent] for us. We send them gifts and bonuses and view them as part of our team. 

How did you come to work with Intellias?

We did a Google search, looking all over the world. There were 2 factors that made Intellias work really well for us. When you visit them or speak with them, they’re unique and feel very much like a Silicon Valley company in terms of atmosphere and environment. They have integrity, care about people, and treat them with respect. They’d won awards for being the best development shop to work for in their region. It was overall the values that they had and their approach to it. 

When we found Intellias, we felt good, but we moved forward very cautiously. The relationship has grown ever since. When you meet with their owners, Michael [COO, Intellias] and Vitaly [CEO, Intellias], they are super down to earth guys. You feel like they have your best interest in mind. Over the 6 years we’ve been working with them, their actions have proven that. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2011 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve delivered on everything we’ve asked them to. They produce a great product. They commit, deliver, and go out of their way. It’s not like they put their 8 hours in and say they’re done. If there’s work to be completed, they will spend all night working on it to hit deliverables. It’s been fantastic.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very flexible and allowed us to dictate everything in terms of project management. They conformed to using all our project management tools the way we wanted to. They’re absolutely customer-centric, which means they’re there to make us happy. They also take ownership of things and accountability. Overall, it’s what you would hope for working with any contract company. We work with a lot of companies both in the U.S. and internationally, and I rank them as one of the best partnerships we have.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There’s a fair burden of risk on both parties. It wasn’t like they weren’t willing to talk to us on the phone until they’re billing us $150-$200 an hour. They were willing to run it on their dime to prove to us they are the best. They assumed risks on that because they had confidence in their work. We try and be a good customer to them and we’ll assume risks at times as well. 

It comes back to being a really good partnership. I’ve never felt like they put us in a difficult or compromising situation. Anytime anything has come up where there’s any question, it’s very collaborative and both parties come to the table. It’s always fair, honest, and genuine. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The one disappointment was the cultural adjustment period, but I don’t believe that’s their fault or any way around that. They adapted really quickly. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of Intellias?

We’ve been thrilled. I genuinely love the guys and think they’re amazing. They do good work and, as a company, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done without their help. In a lot of ways, they’ve made our success happen.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a leading location cloud company. We harness the power of location data to build location-based services and solutions for B2B and B2C customers. I'm the engineering director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We're on a long journey. We believe our business will help to build the autonomous world in the future. It's not easy to get highly skilled engineers in this world. We were looking into how to be cost-efficient for some parts of the business. This is how our cooperation goes; it goes both ways. We have outsourced mature technology stacks. Our cooperation is more about cross-functional teams. We are exploring new ideas and we build team extensions from there.

We also develop location-based services. We are talking about the cloud, things like Java and Scala, but also there's a complementary part; for some of our projects, we develop client software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked with different Agile software development methodologies variations, which is what we use at our company. They were very flexible with all the JIRA plug-ins, scrum boards, etc. For some project planning, they used Microsoft products. We gave them opportunities to design how they would do it. They introduced improvements to the process that we have at our company. We didn't want to impose our ways of work, but there was knowledge sharing involved.

What is the team dynamic?

My department is only one of several departments that are working with Intellias. On my project, we started with over 20 developers, release managers, and project managers, because we started with a mature technology stack to see how they would cope with this challenge. We interviewed everyone. Nowadays, there are more than 200 Intellias engineers working for different parts of the company.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

I started looking in Ukraine. I also talked to other companies outside of Ukraine. I knew the Ukrainian market to some extent. We chose to work with a company in Ukraine because of the one-hour time difference. The Czech Republic has big companies there like Amazon and Intel, but in countries like Poland and Ukraine, it's like the Wild West; there are no big companies, so there's a lot of talent on the market. We had a thorough process on how we selected the partner. At the end of the day, we decided to go with a mid-size company, not a big one. We believed that having cooperation with a mid-size company would enable us to shape the cooperation and build the way of working. We also have direct contact with the company’s C-level executives.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their deliverables were not always on time because we are talking about operational work, but we saved roughly 40% in terms of cost. Most importantly, it was not about cost savings, because we also have people internally. This gave us an opportunity to free up our internal capacity to target strategic areas where we would like to enter.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Scrum and AJAX. We asked if they had other ideas to make processes more efficient, and in some areas they did, especially with software release processes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're still growing the cooperation. It’s a true success story for me. If they could find more talent for us faster, that would be great. We also don't want to compromise on quality. They have a very good selection process of their candidates, but also for the lead positions, you interview the guys. We don't compromise on quality on one hand, but on the other hand, we would like to have more talented engineers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can't really say. It's a good cooperation, and I don't see anything that they could do better. We put them in the driver's seat for some of the projects. We don’t impose how they do things. So far, I'm very happy with the cooperation.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
Phase6 is a German limited company that helps students improve their vocabulary in different languages with software solutions for desktop and mobile devices. We are the market leader in our segment in Germany, and our customers are students aged 10-15 and their parents. Currently we have 20 employees.

I am the CEO. Formerly, I was the product manager on this project for a long period until I transferred most of the responsibility to a new product manager in 2016.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?
In 2012 we had two separate products for mobile and desktop, which were not connected. The legacy product had been quite successful in Germany for almost 10 years, but it was an offline solution for PC and Mac. Even though both products did essentially the same thing, a switch from one product to the other was not possible. We were looking to build a platform where both products could connect, and we knew we needed to switch to a cloud platform with mobile apps, in other words, a modern architecture. This platform was also supposed to become the core of a completely new product version that would enable us to offer more modern usability with web and mobile clients to our users, which would allow us to grow faster and provide better services to our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
Intellias developed our solution natively for iOS and Android. Our backend is Java, and we also have an HTML5 and JavaScript web application. We are currently working with a 7-person team from Intellias’ side, including 2 QA resources. Earlier in the project, we had up to 11 people working on the project.

How did you come to work with Intellias?
We were looking for a service provider that was able to provide a scalable team of highly skilled engineers at a competitive price. We were also looking for a midsize company to make sure that our project was one of their larger projects, and so we would have senior management attention if needed. This was a big advantage for us when looking at Intellias because they weren’t too big at the time. We looked for developers in Ukraine since we already had one developer there who had been working for us for a long time and with whom we were happy. We reviewed a couple of different companies there. When we looked at some reviews for Intellias’ developers on a platform specializing in companies from that region, they had the best reviews for their resources.

Since we hadn’t managed any large projects before, we were also looking for experienced project managers who would help us increase the chances for a successful project and help integrate our own designer into this project. The project duration of the original scope was 3 years and then switched to a long-term development project that would continue improving and maintaining the existing product.

How much have you invested with Intellias?
The project has been running for almost 5 years, during which time we’ve spent between €300,000–€500,000 [$355,000–$591,000] every year. We currently spend closer to €300,000. Overall, the cost has been between €1.5 million–€2 million. [$1.7 million–$2.3 million]

What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with Intellias in the beginning of 2012. The project is ongoing, and it will continue for a long time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
Five years after the project started, customer satisfaction, conversion rates, and overall system performance are at an all time high. Project management is now in our own hands, and I wouldn’t want to change it back. Our original concept of separating product and project management encountered too many challenges, which resulted in schedule and budget overruns. I am still not sure whether this concept could have been more successful or whether it completely contradicts the idea of agile development. The most significant result has been that Intellias developed our main (and pretty much only) product. Our revenue depends on its maintenance, so if our continued existence and growth as a company can be considered results, then we’ve been successful!

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?
We are using Atlassian software, namely JIRA and Confluence. The most important part of project management is having a structured approach using tools like these. We had some minor issues in the beginning sticking to deadlines, but we’re currently on a very good track. This may have been a communication problem, and it’s normal that with every new project and from both sides, some expectations aren’t met in the beginning.

What did you find most impressive about Intellias?
Our initial expectation was that we would have access to management if we had any problems. We did have some issues in the beginning, but we always found a solution. I’ve seen projects fail at points like these, but we always got through every problem with Intellias.

Are there any areas Intellias could improve?
We wanted everything to run smoothly from the beginning and, looking back, Intellias couldn’t have done a better job. Nothing negative comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an educational technology startup. We develop technological solutions for our B2B clients, which are typically publishers in the education space and private schools. I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

The goal was to have a flexible and scalable programming team. We needed to recruit talented programmers quickly, which is hard to do in Austria. We also wanted to be able to scale the team up and down based on the needs of the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide a full service: everything from staffing your team, hosting them with their infrastructure, doing the requirements and business analysis of your project, and then the end-to-end implementation. They also handle the quality assurance, requirements management, deployment, and operations. It’s a full-service agency. We can decide who we need on our team through Intellias. They’re also flexible when we do some work ourselves and only need them for the programming. They have a nice business model.

They built an app for iOS and Android for one of our projects. We license the app to various education companies. They built the whole backend solution for the app, including some artificial intelligence.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

About five years ago, we decided we wanted a development partner in a particular town in Ukraine. We visited the area and interviewed three different companies. Intellias was the smallest one, and we liked them the best. We liked their people and their approach. We liked that they were small enough to allow us to talk directly to the owners. They’ve grown a lot since then, but we have a very good relationship.

How much have you invested with Intellias?

We spend between €250,000 and €750,000 [US $268,700–$806,100] every year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since June or July of 2012, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have quite a few educational apps on the market that were developed by Intellias. Maybe our biggest success story is that Oxford University Press, the biggest English-language learning materials publisher in the world, has licensed our technology for worldwide distribution.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

We use JIRA, and there is usually a dedicated project manager on the team. We share the infrastructure, and my team in Austria is using the same tools. It’s really quite seamless.

What did you find most impressive about Intellias?

The most unique thing about them is their flexibility. You can talk to the two business owners, and there’s no corporate red tape. They provide very pragmatic solutions. It’s really great for a startup company to have a partner like this.

They also always provide a dedicated quality assurance engineer. They’re very experienced in covering all the different types of quality assurance: manual, automated, integrated testing, unit testing, system-level testing, and performance testing. They do all of this by default

Are there any areas Intellias could improve?

Not really. I’m quite happy all around.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a small IT project management and development company in Switzerland.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked on several projects with Intellias, starting with Java, Oracle database, and web development. We have also used Intellias for client-server projects, as well as portal development and Android and iOS work.

In general, we've worked with teams of 5 –10 people from Intellias. Their project managers were in touch with ours, but we also had contact with the developers themselves.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

I met with Intellias' team in Switzerland at a time when their company was developing its business.

How much have you invested with Intellias?

The cost of most of the projects we've done with Intellias has been between $100,000 and $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Intellias in 2005. We have worked on six or seven projects with them so far. Our most current one started in August 2016 and is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Intellias has provided creative and professional resources, who are up to date and know their business. A good thing about Intellias is that they concentrate on the DACH region [Germany, Austria, and Switzerland], which means that they understand the business going on in this area.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

In general, we've communicated through phone and Skype with Intellias, but we also use JIRA for tracking specific issues.

What did you find most impressive about Intellias?

Intellias has German-speaking resources, which is a good benefit for us, especially when involving clients into discussions. Intellias is service-focused during all decisions, concentrating on what is a benefit for us and our business.

Are there any areas Intellias could improve?

Areas of improvement also include our own company. The communication could be improved, but we wouldn’t have had the same issue if we were talking with English natives. German can be difficult to translate, so we’ve had trouble in translating from non-English speakers.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Intellias?

I would recommend Intellias to clients looking to start bigger projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We develop B2B software with payment functionalities within the gambling space, namely online casinos and sports. We have around 70 clients worldwide and have been growing nicely over the last few years. I am the chief executive officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We have development offices in Romania, Armenia, China, and Vietnam. We were looking to expand our development capacity, making Intellias our 5th development office. We were at the outset of starting a large project that would involve at least 30 developers, but it ended up requiring 50. We were faced with recruitment issues in our main offices, so we started looking around. With all our other development locations, we have made the investment of establishing a local company, thus not using outsourcing per se. Intellias is the only instance where we used an outsourced development company that sits between us and the developers. It was a departure from our normal practice. The reason for doing it was because of the size of the project — we felt that we needed to have a reasonable assurance of staffing up quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have built an application for payment integration using Intellias. That is an area with strict requirements since the product will undergo an audit for obtaining a payment provider license. We started architecting the solution and applied for a payment service provider license (PSP) in Malta, one of the preferred European issuers. In order to do this, we needed to obtain what is known as PCI 1, a high level of security. We hired a dedicated security specialist as part of our Intellias team. The specialist’s job was to review everything we were doing and present both architected documents and testing, allowing us to pass the audit later on. This is a bit unusual in software development, where the usual focus is on other things. We had very high standards that needed to be met.

We knew this area well already, given that the application we were building was replicating an existing lower-quality solution using a new team and higher requirements. Intellias represents 40% of the team we're using for the project, specifically with more than 60 developers. Our solution is web frontend, but most of our work with Intellias was server-side. It involved many senior developers experienced with .NET, and Java. The transactions handled by the software involve many server integrations, storage, and security. Most of the frontend developers in Intellias' office are working on the back-office interface for configuration, search, and administration, not a traditional end-user portal.

The interaction was key for us. We have set out to make Intellias' team a part of our own staff, so we weren't looking for the typical outsourcing model of handing over requirements and waiting for a result. We haven't used Intellias' project managers, but we have used them for hosting, recruitment and servicing. We have taken control of the projects and the staff to a large degree. We have been active within the organization; I have traveled regularly to Intellias' location and so have our members from job and division management. After a 2-year collaboration, things have become quite smooth. For all intents and purposes, we see Intellias as just another office in our matrix. They do play an important role, but it's limited in certain ways.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

I had an employee who had worked with Intellias and recommended the company. I was looking at other places, mostly in Kiev, but since he'd had a good experience, we decided to include Intellias in the interview process. We also talked with 3 other companies. We made some job descriptions and asked for sample CVs for the first team from each candidate company. Intellias came out strong in this regard. Overall, they have not disappointed us since then. The actual offering is never exactly as described, but we've been able to recruit talent from Intellias fairly well. It's been a stable relationship, with very few developers leaving our team since we've started. The price mattered, but another reason for choosing Intellias was their location. L'viv, Ukraine is a small city compared to Kiev, which offers more developers but also has more staff turnover. I've seen this in Bucharest, where we have our own company. The turnover is too great, even though we're active in our retention effort.

How much have you invested with Intellias?

I don't know the exact number, but it's significant. We've increased our initial team of 5–6 people to 60 developers on Intellias' side. The cost for Intellias is the same as other major players in the Ukrainian market, split between the staff and the company overhead. I like this model because it makes it clear what Intellias' costs are, and, if the staff has a salary increase because of inflation, it will hit me one-to-one.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Intellias since the spring of 2014. The initial staffing process was slow, with the work starting more seriously in November to December of that year. Our framework was built during 2015 and 2016. We're mostly done at the moment, with most projects being delivered. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We don't keep track of completion percentages or other tasks, largely because this has not been Intellias' role. We have taken the lead on all projects, so any mistakes in terms of architecture and scheduling have been our responsibility. Intellias gave us the clay to work with and it was up to us to use it. I am happy with the quality of developers; Intellias has a good team. There will, of course, be some misses when hiring 60 people, but, if 50 of those are kept, then we've done a good job. We are probably around that number.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

We have deadlines and they have been missed occasionally. In the beginning, delays were more unexpected, but our communication has been better, with ample warning coming from their side. This isn't exclusively the responsibility of Intellias because the project planning happens with our own staff. Intellias has no say and isn't informed about our project plans and milestones. If we did great, I wouldn't credit Intellias and I wouldn't discredit them if we did poorly.

We have used our project management tools of choice, which are the same ones used in Romania and China. Intellias adapted to them.

One particular thing I was looking for from the start was to have the team move out of Intellias' office. This happened when we reached 25 people. Our initial team was housed along with all other developers in a big office, which meant that the staff felt more connected to Intellias than to us. I wanted to change that and Intellias was flexible in accommodating us. In 2015, our team was moved to another office which Intellias set up for us. It was quite far away from our initial location. The office is in an area which we liked and has our logo on the door. For all intents and purposes, it's our own office even though Intellias is paying the rent and ensuring that everything works in terms of Internet and other facilities. It was a good solution for us, making our developers feel like a part of our company even if their employment contracts say Intellias.

Another goal was to convert the team's operation to our fully-owned payment setup. This was in our contract from day one. The longer we wait, the more profit Intellias makes, but the price paid for taking developers out of Intellias also decreases. It's a good setup which shows good flexibility and understanding of our needs. We've grown within the organization and gradually separated in terms of office, and, one year from now, in terms of the contract.

What did you find most impressive about Intellias?

It was a great experience to speak to Intellias' management, given that I was in touch with their CEO from day one and not with an assigned account manager. We have become one of their largest clients, which Intellias realized from the start. Not that an account manager can't do great things, but having a direct line to their CEO really does help. There aren't usually many issues, but, when I need to, I can go to Intellias' CEO and get a fast and professional reaction.

Are there any areas Intellias could improve?

It's been a pleasure working with Intellias and I have very little to say in terms of improvements.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a German work council education institute. We are a market leader offering a spectrum of seminars, from law-related topics to economics, and everything else that a work council could be in need of.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We were modernizing our IT infrastructure and decided to have a hybrid Azure integration.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intellias is working on creating a web API, serving the consumer endpoints we are providing such as our website or app. We have an ASP.NET Web API project and are using C# for the backend. The platform-as-a-service uses a SQL server using the Entity Framework. We are also creating OData controllers for more flexibility in terms of data querying and extending entities.

Our endpoints are the key features of the project. We currently have an old-school method for data transfer, using integration services that read from one database and store the information into another. We are analyzing the data transferred and implementing APIs for it. We thought that the translation process for transcribing our entities would take more time, but Intellias' developer quickly understood what we actually needed. I am very confident and satisfied with the process.

We are currently employing a single developer from Intellias, although I've used a team of 3 people for a past project. Our overall project is employing other external contractors, with a total team of 10.

We are employing an Agile methodology using a backlog and multiple iterations, which is used for all our projects. The development is somewhat chaotic at this time, but that is more our fault.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

I first worked with Intellias in 2010, and have actually grown to be friends with their chief developer. Given that I had had a good experience, I thought it would be a good move to replicate it currently.

We had another company in competition, and we are also working with another service provider in Croatia. My experience with them, as well as the cost, made my choice for Intellias very easy.

How much have you invested with Intellias?

We are currently in the scope of $50,000 for Intellias' services, for our full list of requirements. Some of the financial decisions are made by my bosses. Our company is quite dynamic, with many analysis processes. Things could change, but for the moment, the scope will remain constant.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Intellias in October 2016. We have an ongoing relationship with Intellias.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We are still in the development phase. After the analysis phase, we worked on a few proof-of-concept deliverables. We have gone through the implementation and are now in the test phase. The service provider taking care of our website will test the endpoints created by Intellias, looking at performance issues around our Azure setup. We will refine the missing details later on, but Intellias is helping us with the testing phase for the moment. That is a good milestone to reach, and we have done it in good time. Everyone has been content with the progress.

The next phase will revolve around the community side of the software. Once our customers are registered on the site, they can buy our seminars and books. Those transactions will need to be handled by us, which will be the next step. We have set a deadline of August 2017, and I think that we are progressing well.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

We have worked with a project manager from Intellias, but we have preferred working directly with our developer. We are setting up use cases for the endpoints, typically explaining our requirements and exchanging documentation over Skype. There is not much overhead with project management. We collaborate almost daily, but I was able to give our developer a set of to-dos while I was on vacation; everything worked fine. The only difficulty has come from the fact that we use German wording for everything. Translating things into English is often the most painful thing.

What did you find most impressive about Intellias?

During my 2010 Java project with Intellias, they did a perfect job, supporting me with all architecture and design questions. We had a 3-person team which worked proactively. The current project may have seemed boring to Intellias by comparison, but I can't say anything negative about the company. Intellias cares about the company, doing as much as possible to satisfy us.

Are there any areas Intellias could improve?

The only thing that could have been done differently was on our side. Intellias came into the project after our workflow had been set up. I can't say that Intellias did anything wrong, on the contrary.

If their target countries are Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, Intellias' team could improve its German. I speak fairly good English, but it could be a problem for my colleagues.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Position: Technical Product Owner Company: Loan Comparison platform

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intellias?

Internal CRM system development and support.

What were your goals for this project?

Deliver new features to the customers based on backlog defined by Product Owners. Guarantee stable execution of current services.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Based on the recommendation.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Software components development and testing based on requirements backlog.

What was the team composition?

Cross-functional team of Java BE developers, ReactJS frontend developers, QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

we went through the period of establishing stable execution processes and right now are capable of developing new features at a full speed.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project is lead by 2 product owners and technical product owners from customers side and executed by 2 teams with dedicated team leads on vendors side in an agile manner.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed with their readiness to adjust to requirements.

Are there any areas for improvement?

- continuous staffing flow