Kanda Software

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a tech solutions company that allows financial advisors to effectively plan and engage with clients around health and aging. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanda Software?

They helped us create our application for financial advisors and individual investors.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were responsible for building a reporting and assessment app for investors and advisors. It can generate scoring and healthcare cost estimates. We also offer educational materials and a matching service that pairs investors to advisors. They’ve integrated a billing service that allows users to pay quarterly or annually. 

What is the team composition?

I usually interact with 3–4 people at a time, including a project manager and a few programmers. 

How did you come to work with Kanda Software?

I was referred to them by a friend who knew someone who had collaborated with them in the past. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $500,000 on the project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2017, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work is very high. When they make mistakes, they correct them quickly. Their attentiveness and responsiveness have been good, as they complete tasks in a timely manner.  

How did Kanda Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very well-managed. We use a project management system that we use for specs, meeting notes, and other documentation. They manage most of that, but I can make updates if needed. We email on a daily basis and have a meeting over the phone with them once every week. They also update their QA site regularly, so we’re able to review their work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a mature, thoughtful, conscientious team that’s always a pleasure to work with. When I ask them to do something, they do it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on, they could’ve done a bit better of a job with QA, but we’ve addressed that at this point. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When giving them a spec or estimate, make sure that they understand what you need. If you’re more specific than you think you need to be, there is less of a chance that they’ll misinterpret your needs. I highly recommend working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Engineering for Base Operations. We provide historical crime data for companies to analyze so that they can analyze areas that they’re going to work in, travel, acquire assets, and more.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanda Software?

We’re currently a distributed company. We don’t have a location that we’re currently working in. We need one. We needed to bring on engineering talent to augment, essentially build, our team as we start to get our business off the ground. We needed a team that is flexible, able to create new product launches and focus on the bigger picture.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over the course of the engagement, they’ve done a number of things. They’ve worked on React Native development, geared toward iOS and Android. They’ve done API Service development, database implementations, and more.

We’re currently working on eight US platforms, where they’re working on lambda functions, Python analysis for data mining, and web development. I don’t think that’s everything, it’s just a brief summary of what they’ve done for us.

What is the team composition?

We’ve only had 2–3 people assigned to our team. Right now things have slowed down, but we’ve gotten up to three people at a time.

How did you come to work with Kanda Software?

I’ve known them for abut 10 years. I worked with their CEO when we were both doing an engagement at a previous company. When I joined this company, they were the first ones that I called when I was looking for help.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together back in April 2019, and we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve been able to implement code reviews with their team. We can go in multiple directions with the developers that we have on staff and the developers at Kanda Software. We’ve been able to do code testing. I’ve been able to trust the code reviews of the people at Kanda Software.

We’ve been able to tighten up our process as well, because of them. Having good engineering practices has allowed us to keep our quality up.

How did Kanda Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We set everything in-house, such as product direction and the ilk. We’ve been able to communicate effectively with both detailed specification and informal talks. The developers that we’ve been working with our flexible, ask the right questions and good questions, and can come to the conclusions on their own in order to build what we need.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been fully engaged in the process. I get the sense that they’re not a remote or offshore developer. They’re almost a part of the team and engaging. That’s normally not the case, and very impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t had much to criticize. I’ve been fortunate with them pretty much universally.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take the time to talk with the developers. Get the sense that they’ll be fully engaged with your team. That’s something you should take advantage because they’ve been very impressive in terms of being fully engaged, smart, and helping us to be successful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of College Interactive. We’re an education technology firm that specializes in helping undergraduate and graduate programs connect with potential students. We help both the students access programs and the colleges access students.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanda Software?

We hired Kanda Software to manage the development efforts for our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a SaaS platform that’s tied to two native mobile apps. Their team has been responsible for development, UX/UI, QA testing, and maintenance.

What is the team composition?

It varies over time. When we’re in heavy development mode, there may be as many as five or six different people working on projects simultaneously. But on average, there are usually one or two resources. Typically, a project manager and an individual putting in a part-time effort monthly.

How did you come to work with Kanda Software?

In 2014, a good friend of mine in the software space refereed them. We liked their hybrid model, which is their onshore presence in Boston with an offshore development team.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $3,000–$4,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed our first contract with them in August 2014. It’s an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Kanda Software is a great business partner. Their personal approach has been a big and positive factor for us. There’s a lot of one-on-one time with different people within the organization. Their team is attentive towards our needs when it comes to scheduling, budget quality, and responsiveness to fixing issues. We’re working with one vendor that supports our entire business and platform. It’s critical that they’re responsive. Overall, they’re very good to work with.

How did Kanda Software perform from a project management standpoint?

That’s the biggest value in working with them. I have a dedicated project manager. She’s incredible and truly understands business strategy. These days, it’s interesting that there are a lot of people with the title of “project manager” who actually aren't experienced. We’ve been fortunate to work with somebody who is on top of everything and organized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a solid personal and business relationship with Kanda Software. We never feel like we’re lost in the crowd. Their attention to detail is also impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing that comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As you’re working through any business partnership, establish goals and objectives early on. Hold any company accountable. If things aren’t happening for some reason, make sure that there is some accountability. Make sure you’re staying on budget and getting deliverables that you’re looking for. Software projects can sometimes take on a mind of their own.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are in the digital adverting and adtech business. I lead technology and solutions for a multi-billion dollar US business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Hired Kanda to transition existing data processing pipelines and ML models to Google cloud.

What were your goals for this project?

Perform business analysis, finalize requirements, develop project plan, develop the solution in Google Cloud (GCP), test, deliver and maintain, a six month project.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The process of selecting a vendor is a very thorough, competitive, and long process. After the initial shortlist of vendors, I invited six RFP's. The top three were selected for in-person presentation and proposal review and understand each vendor's development process, methodology, and company's resources in skillset and past projects success with references.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

As an adtech company, we collect big data for analytics and model for future decisions on media buying. The legacy processes are outdated and designing a complete data pipeline and machine learning frameworks in GCP. It is an important project for the company to succeed.

Kanda's team put together an excellent team of business analysts, project managers, and technical resources who are seasoned, professional, and reliable with milestones. Kanda developed new data pipelines processing terabytes of data in GCP leveraging BigQuery, Python, TensorFlow, BigQuery's machine learning functionality for optimization, and dashboards in Data studio for standard reports.

What was the team composition?

Two business analysts, project manager, four engineers, and a QA engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This is an important project for the company both strategically and tactically. This project improved internal data operations efficiency helped monetize new opportunities with advanced data analytics, improved the turn around time for data availability for internal operations.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

An onsite business analyst to start the project, a remote business analyst, and project manager. Engagement manager or account manager weekly check-ins, daily standup calls with engineering team

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Assembling the right set of skillset for the project. Kanda Software is very willing and open to change the course of the project to improve the project outcome.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is always an improvement in communicating. Being an outsourcing vendor with a global team, you can't over-communicate. Kanda always made sure, they are reachable and communicate to the right people in our large multi-city company.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Invaluable Inc is the world's leading online marketplace for fine art, antiques and collectibles. We provide an online buying experience and live auctions all over the world. I'm a director of an awesome front-end engineering team of web and mobile engineers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We're in the process of rebuilding one of our older websites auctionzip.com with limited in-house resources. We brought in Kanda to help with our front-end and QA needs for this project.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals for this project were to create a brand new website that is responsive, provides a great user experience and a modern user interface as well as improved SEO.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We reached out to a number of companies and contacts in e-commerce space for recommendations. After narrowing down the list to three vendors, we conducted interviews. As this was a staff augmentation project, it was very important to us that our engineers on this project feel comfortable with the offshore engineering and QA resources.

We interviewed the actual engineers who we ended up working with, and our team unanimously selected Kanda team.

Describe the project in detail.

This project was a page by page rewrite of a legacy website on a new platform and modern tech stack (react.js, node.js, bootstrap, scss). The added complexity was that the new pages needed to be released gradually and con-exist within the eco-system of an existing legacy website. Kanda team was fully integrated with our Invaluable team.

They attended all meetings including planning and daily standups, followed our internal processes with code reviews and QA and were full members of the team.

What was the team composition?

The AZ team consisted of one senior Kanda front-end engineer, two Invaluable engineers (one senior, one entry level), three QA engineers (one Invaluable engineer who was also a scrum master and two Kanda QA engineers), one backend engineer, a product manager and a designer from Invaluable.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Despite multiple technical challenges, the progress was steady and multiple pages / features were released over the course of collaboration.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Having Kanda team be fully integrated with our team made for a very effective worklow. Everybody followed the same conventions and best practices as established by the scrum team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Kanda has a solid structure with clear communication. It's not just the engineering team, it's the whole support structure built around responding to our needs in a timely manner, including it finding engineers and QA team members who fit what we're looking for and checking in with us to make sure everything is working out well.

Are there any areas for improvement?

This collaboration was a success, and I can't think of any.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Decision Management Solutions, a management consulting company. We specialize in helping people build automated decision-making systems 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanda Software?

We have a piece of software that we use to support our consulting efforts and license to some of our clients. We needed someone to keep the software running and useable while helping us transition to a modern platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The software was built on Silverlight and ran on Microsoft Azure. We initially hired Kanda Software for maintenance. They provided bug fixes and supervised the Azure installation. Then we started to make changes to software based on our experience using it. Kanda Software took over the codebase and started active development. They built new features and cleaned up ones we didn’t need. They also streamlined our capabilities, improved the API and UI, and kept everything up and running.

We made a commitment to continue supporting the product, but we had to move it off of Silverlight because Silverlight was being retired. We developed an HTML-based modern platform alongside our old platform with Kanda Software and some other teams. Kanda Software provided the UI work, creating HTML equivalents to the interfaces in our Silverlight version. Kanda Software made it easy; they were already familiar with the Silverlight version, and they managed hand-offs seamlessly so we never had to worry about them. They also handled crises and bugs as they came up. All the while, the team kept up support for the Silverlight version until the new platform was ready.

What is the team composition?

We worked with at least half a dozen people. There were consistent project and account management contacts, but we also had time-sliced developers who changed over time — as expected. Kanda Software managed all those transitions effortlessly.

How did you come to work with Kanda Software?

We needed support for Silverlight and were looking for someone who could be very flexible. We’re a consultancy, which means the amount of work we can do from month to month varies tremendously. The vendor also needed to be able to time-slice developers. Lastly, they need to have Silverlight expertise while still being willing to train staff in new technologies. We didn’t want to find new people after we moved off of Silverlight.

We got proposals from several people, and Kanda Software had one of the best packages for us. Not only did their expertise and flexibility match our needs, but their business model also made us a classic customer for them.    

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in March 2017 and ended in January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Kanda Software was able to keep the software running successfully without problems even as Silverlight’s support degraded. They problem-solved to ensure that our product worked on as many browsers as possible and even created a downloadable version that didn’t rely on a browser. 

They also were generally responsive to emergencies even though we didn’t have 24/7 support in our contract. Kanda Software was flexible on where we applied hours, but whenever we needed them to put in hours immediately, they did it.

We’re up and running on the non-Silverlight version of the platform. Now, we’re moving client accounts from the old platform to the new one. Kanda Software has helped us transition development to our internal team. They were real team players throughout the whole process.

How did Kanda Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Kanda Software was everything we could have wanted in an offshore firm. They got us up and running on Jira quickly, and we used that to communicate. Their quality of English and clarity of questions and responses were above average. We had fewer back-and-forth conversations than I’ve had with other vendors. Plus, it was always easy to get a hold of someone and find out what they’re working on. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

UI design can be a challenge with offshore developers if we’re not specific enough in our requirements. I had fewer of those issues with the Kanda Software team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, Kanda Software met our expectations, which they set very consistently. They generally provided emergency support even though we didn’t contract them for that service. Everything was done well; I have no complaints.

Any advice for potential customers?

They’re more closely managed than other offshore development teams I’ve worked with. They had processes and people in place to track bugs and manage the project, we didn’t have to be as engaged on our end. I’d encourage people to take advantage of that.

I was also impressed by how quickly they took over our codebase with little help. Kanda Software has also been about transitioning our new codebase to our internal developers. They’re a great solution to anyone facing complicated transitions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO for Epion Health, a digital healthcare provider. We offer solutions that allow providers and patients to interact with one another. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanda Software?

We were looking for offshore support in developing some of our softwares.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kanda Software acts as a core member of our team, and they’ve been involved in all of our major projects. They helped us build a mobile-first website, as well as a lot of features and functions on several of our products.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with between seven and ten people in total since the start of our engagement.

How did you come to work with Kanda Software?

We went through a contractor vetting process, and Kanda was recommended to us by a colleague. We compared them to about ten other consultants, but their team ultimately won out on the basis of cost, size, and flexibility with the team augmentation model. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $400,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We assign story points to each segment of our development efforts, and while we don’t necessarily track individual developers, we track teams. In terms of velocity, Kanda has performed really well. Their team has really helped to bring our numbers up. 

How did Kanda Software perform from a project management standpoint?

As Kanda functions as an extension of our own team, they don’t manage our projects. However, they’ve integrated well internally. 

In terms of communication, we have daily stand-ups and keep in touch frequently throughout the day over Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Noah (Senior Sales Manager) has been an excellent point of contact. He was a huge part of why we partnered with Kanda in the first place, as he relentlessly provided us with information as to why they’d be a great fit. 

Vlad (SVP, Delivery & Operations) has also been a critical technical resource along the way. We’ve done design and process sessions with him, and he’s really helped form our engineering culture.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We were very critical at the beginning of our engagement, which I think led to success down the line. During the onboarding process, we vetted candidates to make sure their skills were up to our expectations and that they would understand how our team works and what our success metrics are. That was a really important step.