Perficient Latin America

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Initium LLC is a consulting firm.

What is your position?

I am the owner of the firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with PSL Corp.?

PSL Corp. assists us with development work for a consumer financing company in Colombia. They offer sub-prime lending for motorcycle financing, and were using a legacy system that needed to be improved in order to maintain their competitiveness.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

The project took two years of development and went into production in December of 2015.

They worked using platforms called Eureka and Jbrain which allow them to spend most of their time on the requirements and understanding exactly what they want to do. The software uses industry-standard databases, lets you make adjustments quickly and create prototypes. It allows you to spend time not reinventing the wheel, but making the wheel go faster.

How did you come to work with PSL Corp.?

We wanted to work with a local company. We'd collaborated with them on smaller projects and liked the quality that they could provide.

The software that we use is essential to our business, and we can't afford to take any chances. This is one of the main reasons that the company we were contracting for, chose to use legacy software: even if it's outdated, you know it works.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Our total cost for the current project is around $2,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first started working with them three years ago. Our current project started two years ago. Our work will probably continue throughout the next year on things that we knew had to be done but for which we didn't want to hold up the production process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The platform just went into production. When we first started, our company went through a massive change in terms of policies, people and approach. PSL Corp. was able to adapt very well to those changes.

What distinguishes PSL Corp. from other providers?

They have an amazing team. I've worked in IT projects across the globe, and they're one of the best I've seen, being on par with companies like HP and IBM. They're able to understand the business and offer results that are better than what you asked for. They think ahead.

Is there anything PSL Corp. could have improved or done differently?

They need to make sure that they manage their clients' expectations around the development process. Their Agile-based process is very good, but it requires an educated consumer, one that understands what is required of that process. PSL Corp. needs to assign the right persons to match up with the client and manage expectations in terms of what the process can and cannot deliver.

What it cannot deliver is a fixed-price system. Most non-IT users, us being no exception, don't really know what they want. As a result, you need to build those factors into the process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Kyäni is a multi-level marketing company. We are based in Idaho Falls, Idaho, but we have operations around the world. We have three major markets. We are in the Asia-Pacific market in Japan, Korea, Australia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore, having offices in many of those countries. Our second market is Europe, and covers Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. We have offices in Turkey, Serbia, Italy, Germany and Sweden. Finally, in the North American and Latin American market, we are in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia. So we have a lot of coverage in terms of countries, time zones and languages.

We have independent representatives who resell our product. They’re spread out throughout all of these markets. They do marketing and sales, and then we do operations and product fulfillment.

What is your position?

I am responsible for our digital business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with PSL Corp?

I started with Kyäni about ten months ago. I was asked to develop innovative ways our distributors could become more effective, ways that we could improve both the customer and distributor experience and interaction. We wanted to build leading edge capabilities that would be new to the industry.

I am at the same level as the Chief Information Officer, who has an operational team that focuses on the day-to-day management of IT, but I didn’t have my own team. As I started to put together ideas and concepts around a suite of tools that we could utilize for distributors, I knew that I would need to identify a partner.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with PSL Corp?

Because our organization is cost sensitive and simply does not have a large budget to support development, and since we needed to move quickly, I started looking at nearshore and offshore options. I didn’t really want to go offshore because of the time zone difference. I wanted to look at nearshore options because I wanted a partner that I could interact with on a real time, daily basis, which would have been very difficult if we were facing a major time zone difference.

We did initial interviews with all three of our options to understand their skills, their work force and their clientele, after which we narrowed our options down to two—the one in Argentina and PSL. We then did some additional follow-up conversations that were more architectural and technical in nature. We brought in our developers and their developers to have peer discussions about the actual technologies and methodologies they were using. Both of the firms were very strong.

The deciding factors that led us to choose PSL were that they were an engineering-focused nearshore partner. We could tell that they had in-depth technical skills. Since working with them, I’ve been able to go onsite and spend some time with their team and have spent many hours on the phone and on Skype with them. I’ve come to realize that not only are they sound architecturally and in engineering, but they also have a positive corporate culture that helps reduce attrition and increase employee satisfaction.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We’ve spent somewhere between $80,000 and $100,000 working with PSL. Over the next couple of months, we’ll be ramping up a bit to meet some of our targets.

What is the status of this engagement?

After we had done all of the initial vetting and interviews, we started working with them in the first part of April [2015]. The relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

I’ve been very impressed with the quality of PSL's work. One of the things that, for me, has been a differentiator is that a company of our size doesn’t have the luxury of maintaining an in-house team of business and quality assurance [QA] analysts, architects and developers. All we can afford is a couple of developers, throw a problem at them and hope we get results. Since we were able to go nearshore, we were able to get a more price-competitive structure.

PSL provides us business analysts that work upfront; that’s been very helpful because by the time we get into the development cycle, we know what the designs should look like and what the requirements will be. PSL also has the luxury of a QA group, that not only looks at the quality of the code, but also has been very instrumental in making sure that the design product looks like the initial wireframes. Their designers are very competent and very effective. When they deliver wireframes, I have high confidence that when the product gets done, it’s going to look like those wireframes, and I think that’s been one of the factors for our success.

Even beyond the technical soundness of the product, the user interface looks good. As I’ve taken this set of tools out to our distributors, the first thing they say is that the product looks so much better than anything they have ever had before. Their first impression of the tool set is positive, and as they start to get into the capabilities that exist in the product, they see that the maturity of the solution matches the design.

The bottom line is that both our executives and our distributors have been happy with the results. It’s been a good partnership.

What distinguishes PSL Corp from other providers?

What I think is unique about this relationship is that the resources at PSL are an extension of our team here in the United States, and the interaction I have with them is like the interaction I have with our other developers, whether they are across the street or across the world. PSL has become my team. They’re just an extension of who we are; I don’t look at them as just another company that’s doing our software work. These are my people that I’m working with to deliver results.

Is there anything PSL Corp could have improved or done differently?

Not really. However, we want to push them outside their comfort zone so we can see new types of results.  It will be interesting to see how quickly they can pick up on a new set of skills and support us. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Credible Behavioral Health is the top leader in the electronic healthcare record sector. I'm the manager that presides over Quality Assurance Engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Inflection Point?

Acceptance and core regression testing.

SOLUTION

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

Technical skillset of resources. Ability to learn a platform with ease and speed. Reliability and availability for project deliveries and deadlines, including afterhours.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

IPS QAs are in charge of testing existing and new features for the Credible Behavioral Health platform as a Web application. Project development undergoes standard Agile practices.

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

We work directly with 11 quality assurance engineers that vary from Junior, Senior and Lead levels.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Nearshore resources at IPS help ensure that we had extensive testing coverage for new and existing features.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Being nearshore, our core hours overlapped over 90%. Having access to all our key systems also ensured proper communication channels and delivery channels for various project artifacts.

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

They showed commitment to excellence.

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

Train staff on latest QE trends such as AI/ML, self-healing tests and predictive quality testing/metrics.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is a forward-thinking team of digital-savvy strategists, technology architects, and boundary-pushing creatives. Because in these digital times, delivering results is the only fuel powerful enough to accelerate business outcomes and create meaningful connections between brands and customers.

I am the VP of Technical Project Management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Sitecore developers to help supplement our development team for a large Sitecore implementation initiative.

SOLUTION

How did you select Inflection Point and what were the deciding factors?

They were referred to us.

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

Sitecore development delivered in agile method to include remediation efforts, leveraging Jira. The Inflection Point team became a part of our team and processes in delivering.

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

2-3 full stack Sitecore developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work was exceptional and on time.

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

Their team fit within our processes and communication tools to include leveraging Jira for implementation and Slack for communication between team members.

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

They were able to ramp up to supplement our team quickly as well as learn and adhere to our processes during implementation. The CEO and CTO are very much involved and have a very hands on approach. All of the team members are exceptionally qualified and very personable to work with.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of engineering services divisions for an IT firm that was recently acquired by another company. We focus on quality engineering, automation, release engineering, developer tools, and service management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire PSL Corp.?

We needed to ramp up the automation for continuous release cycles.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was quick automation.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We reviewed a few vendors in the EU, Asia-Pacific, and South America. We selected PSL Corp. because they provided an overview of their completed projects.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They provide automation services for our products.

What was the team composition?

We’ve worked with about 14 people from their team on various projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

PSL Corp understands and accommodates all of our requirements. They are open and proactive about meeting our needs.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We have regular weekly calls with their project managers to discuss mutual concerns. It’s an excellent arrangement, and we know exactly what they expect from us. Their team is great to work with and highly professional. They make sure that our team is comfortable.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We’re impressed with their professionalism, integrity, and transparency. They are focused on delivering good work, not just getting your money.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Initially, the team required some fine-tuning and adjustment.