Maestro Technologies

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

My corporation is based in Germany. It's a large company with 300,000 people. We are mostly making automotive products as well as building automation and industrial technologies.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the director of business development in the data mining area.

What was your goal for working with Maestro Technologies?

The people in my team did not have this area of expertise with big data, so our goal was to deploy the Hadoop software and tools, but also to have some training on how to use it. One person from Hadoop did that for us, and he did a good job.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Maestro Technologies?

The people in my team did not have this area of expertise with big data, so our goal was to deploy the Hadoop software and tools, but also to have some training on how to use it. One person from Hadoop did that for us, and he did a good job.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Maestro Technologies with which to work?

We worked with them in a previous role within the firm, when we were setting up a computing cluster.

Can you provide a ballpark figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It was a three-month project, 40 hours a week. It was around 500 hours.

When was the latest milestone completed for that work?

It was completed at the end of October of 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

When we started the project, we had a set of [Web] packages that we needed to implement. We had to define some criteria for those packages. They met almost all of them.

Do you feel Hadoop was the proper platform for your organization?

We are still in the process of experimenting and learning based on our needs, whether Hadoop would be the right choice. This was a part of the research organization, and we wanted to experiment with Hadoop at that time. For some big data applications that we have, we would need something like Hadoop. We have had a lot of structured, relational databases in the past, but we are also working with some unstructured data now. Hadoop works well for us.

How did Maestro Technologies perform?

I think they did a good job. The feedback we have received seems to be very good, and the project manager defined the different aspects that they needed to implement. There were a couple of unforeseen things that came up, but they stepped in and did a good job in solving these issues.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

We were impressed with their customer focus as well as the price. We had sent the RFQ [request for quotation] to three or four other companies, and they were the most competitive because of the cost. At the same time, we were able to deliver all the technical work packages that we had. Project execution was also another item, especially the project management.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Not really. I think they did a good job, so I don’t have anything in mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

It's a big data team focused on delivering innovative technologies across a number of use cases that need to leverage Hadoop, MPP [massively parallel processing] platforms, ETL [extract, transform, and load], and data management.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I lead the team that is responsible for architecting, engineering, and supporting the big data platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Maestro Technologies?

The goal was to quickly onboard skills that are hard to find to deliver the projects that we have slated for 2014.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Maestro Technologies is more of a partner than a vendor in that sense because they are filling an ongoing need. They leverage it for staff augmentation and project delivery.

What was your process for selecting Maestro Technologies?

Their ability to provide the right resources at the right time, and their abilities in the specific vertical.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

Between $500,000 and $1 million.

When was the latest milestone completed for that work?

This is an ongoing project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

Because the project is ongoing, Maestro has provided continual customer reviews and quarterly business reviews. We've been pleased with how the resources have performed the task at hand.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

Because of their size, they’re very nimble. Their leadership team is definitely plugged into the most cutting-edge technologies. Maestro is very strategic in how they play in that ecosystem.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

They perform pretty much as expected. It is not an easy business, especially in the big data space, to source the right people. They are doing fine.