Scalac

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We offer an accounting platform and ERP as SaaS for Swiss SMEs. I am the head of software development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Scalac, Inc.?

We hired Scalac, Inc. to take care of the Payroll module, a piece of software that we acquired in 2018. The challenge was to be able to learn, maintain and improve the package within 6 months so that the original developers could leave.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal has been to maintain and add new features to the Payroll application which is written in Scala. The current main challenge is to improve the performance and allow SME of more than 25 employees to use the software.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The selection was based on location (Europe), skill sets, cost, and resource availability. Scalac, Inc. was selected among 3 other vendors. It came with high recommendations from former customers and a solid reputation.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project is still on-going with no end-date. The vendor is responsible for the Payroll application, which encompasses maintenance, new features development, implementations, and improvements. We needed a self-sufficient independent team that could work in Kanban mode, responsible for their CI/CD pipeline, and able to react quickly to new requirements.

What was the team composition?

3 Backend developers (Scala) 1 Frontend developer 1 Business analyst 1 DevOps

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within 6 months, the team was able to take over the payroll software and work without the original developers. They are releasing several times per week and are able to react to scheduled and unscheduled tasks very quickly. Overall the Scalac team met our expectations and went beyond.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team has been impressive in terms of communication and being able to work totally independently. The tools used are Jira, Confluence, bitbucket, Slack and G Suite. The whole team can communicate clearly in English.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The vendor has a selection of very talented professionals. Compared to other vendors we work with, the cost/skills ratio is excellent.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is little to improve apart from the team to feel more empowered to take challenges without waiting for the senior management approval.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

When I was working with Scalac, Inc., I was the product development manager at a business that specialized in advertising technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scalac, Inc.?

We were having a problem finding a credible and relevant recommendation engine for our e-commerce customers. When it comes to advertising, e-commerce customers have a lot to offer to consumers. In the advertising space, we have to find the right thing to advertise to the right person at the right time. We were working with Scalac, Inc. to develop this type of engine.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The engine primarily used Scala as its programming language. At the same time, there were other computing and storage technologies in place.

What is the team composition?

The team varied on capacity needs. At times, we worked with only one or two, and other times, we have seven or eight developers.

How did you come to work with Scalac, Inc.?

I was looking for a company with experience in Scala coding. Back then, Scala wasn’t a popular language. It was gaining popularity in the machine learning community because of its semi-functional nature.

Scalac, Inc. appeared on my radar. After a few chats, I saw that they were reasonably priced. The profiles of the people they suggested were also assessed to be above average by our internal engineers.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from 2015–2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of quality of work, my internal engineers commented on a great job. They also enjoyed working with Scalac, Inc.’s team. It was a surprise because it’s not every day that internal and external teams manage to get to the level of collaboration that satisfies both sides.

The product was developed in a timely manner. There were no delays. Everyone involved was quick to pick up the challenge we were solving and the milestones we were trying to reach. Overall, their contribution was greatly appreciated by the entire company and its customers.

How did Scalac, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

The team at Scalac, Inc. was quick to adapt to any tools we were using. They immediately tried to blend in as if they were members of the actual working teams internally. This was the highlight of the engagement; their team never felt like an external group.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Scalac, Inc. was able to find the right people that could work remotely. Regardless of their physical location, the team was full of results-focused and objective-oriented people. There were also no issues with communication or project management. It was a great experience collaborating with Scalac, Inc.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a few invoicing issues that were resolved early on. That was on the administrative side, so I think if they were to continue to grow, they should invest in full automation of those processes. Other than that, nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief data scientist for a data insights company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scalac, Inc.?

We needed help with development while building our detail pipeline. They helped us with data engineering for the initial pipeline, processing the data so that the pipelines are production-ready, scalable, robust, resilient, and have full tolerance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They mainly helped us with designing certain beta engineering pipelines. They built the initial detail pipeline and also helped us build the API so that our clients can access the product and the pipeline architecture.

We primarily used Scala with Scalac, Inc. We gradually moved into Python as well, even though it’s not their primary business. The recognized our need in this area, and then they helped us with it.

Also, we were building all our pipelines over AWS. They also used Spark and Spark Streaming for building certain pipelines that are operating in real-time. Finally, they also worked on our Elasticsearch clusters that we’d already set up.

What is the team composition?

We started collaborating with one person initially, and then the team grew to three.

How did you come to work with Scalac, Inc.?

They found us. We didn’t have any external collaborators at the time, nor did we have any contractors. On our one-year birthday, I received an email from the CEO of Scalac, Inc.

I saw that they were different from other contractors who were contacting me. They were more concrete and to the point. We started with a short project, which turned into a longer collaboration.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017, finishing in 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The collaboration was a success. They’re highly competent engineers. They’re oriented to provide the best possible development and highest quality results. We’ve now moved the work internally, and everything was handed over to us perfectly documented.

How did Scalac, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a person responsible for interacting with me on a weekly basis to understand if there are any issues. This person was crucial to our success. Whenever I had any questions or complaints about the quality of certain services, they would address it immediately.

They adapted to our tools for project management. They had access to our Jira, our documentation spaces, and all the resources that any in-house employee is given. Any time we needed a resource or there was a problem, they immediately found a similar replacement. They’re very professional.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m confident in their technical skills in building pipelines. I’m impressed by their availability and their processing of company data. It’s been a positive experience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior software developer for Elemica. We’re a technology provider in the supply-chain solutions business. I’m in the Frankfurt, Germany branch.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scalac?

We had a platform that handles electronic messages for the supply chain, but it was originally developed in 2000 and becoming out of date. 

We wanted to rebuild it from scratch in Scala, so we needed a team of developers experienced in the language to help us do so quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Scalac, Inc. delivered support across the stack. They provided resources for backend engineering, distributed systems, and some parts of the new frontend we were building. They also worked on databases.

The team collaborated closely with our own internal development team throughout the project. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people in total, though we only started with two. The team changed throughout the project due to their availability and our budget.

How did you come to work with Scalac, Inc.?

We found Scalac, Inc. through personal contacts from Scala conferences. Our program manager knew their CEO quite well, and we just spread the word that we needed a couple of external consultants to help with our project.

It was a personal connection initially, which turned into a business connection.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from December 2013-August 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform we built with Scalac, Inc. was absolutely transformative for our company. Since we developed the product, we’ve been bought by an investor. Scalac, Inc. had a large part in that.

Our value rose, as did the development speed, and we’ve been able to build new products with the range of capabilities Scalac Inc.’s collaboration unlocked. 

The system is not only a large improvement in terms of function, but we’ve also been able to lower our operational costs to keep it running.

While the result was a bit delayed from what we were promised initially, it was a result of scope creep rather than a failure on their end. As with all big projects, it takes longer if we want to do it properly. 

Ultimately, the partnership was really successful, and we’re still migrating customers from the old system to the new one. 

How did Scalac, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

The people who worked with us were embedded in the team directly after a short period of time. 

We didn’t just send them a description of specific work they had to do; they were just part of our standups and worked on the same user stories and bug fixes as any developer within the company. 

I can’t recall anything that they missed, and I was particularly impressed with a handful of Scalac Inc.’s developers. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing that stood out to us was that they were just nice people to work with. It was clear to us that they were a team who were genuinely interested in the technology, rather than just consultants focused on money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s been a while, but I can’t recall anything. Some of the developers were absolutely tenacious in getting their work done, and I really admired them for that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a software company that’s focused on blockchain technology for enterprise as well as retail use. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scalac, Inc.?

We need software for our front- and backend. It’s important that we have time to focus on our expertise, so we brought them in to help us with our work in Scala.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide software development services for both the front- and backend of our platform. The backend is done using Scala, and the frontend uses JavaScript. They’ve assisted us with many technical services related to development including technical reviews of our software stack and advising services on our app design. 

They’ve helped with our entire tech stack. This includes internal systems and tools as well as client-facing products and open-source code. We work with financial software, so the accuracy is mission-critical. They have tons of experience in taking requirements and writing code that effectively meets our needs. 

What is the team composition?

We typically work with about 3–4 of their developers. During busy points in time, we’ve had up to seven of their people on our projects. 

How did you come to work with Scalac, Inc.?

Our team was in urgent need of qualified developers for blockchain-related systems development. We really like the Scala programming language, and they’re experts in that area.

We already knew who they were because of their reputation in the Scala community, so we decided to reach out. They could quickly understand our needs to build out the software we needed. We had a great conversation, and their rates were quite reasonable. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $500,000–800,000 on their services to this point. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We engaged them in May 2018, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This is a cutting-edge field of work that requires independent research and learning a lot upfront. They’ve been adaptable in this area, and they’re comfortable in the fintech domain. It’s clear that they’re deeply interested in our work, able to scale up quickly.

Their finished products have high uptimes. They also have experience handling large volumes of data, which has helped in our efforts to manage blockchain data. We’ve been able to use the expertise of their developers to support all of the data processing involved.  

How did Scalac, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re happy with the way they work because of the level of independence they offer. They have their own project managers that can delegate work. Other times, when we have specific requirements, they’re able to adhere to those as well. Our relationship has become very productive that way. 

Despite our remote relationship and their offshore location, communication has never been a problem. All members of their team have been able to discuss their work. Time differences have been beneficial because we have solid workday overlap hours with them. They’re responsive and always get back to us quickly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are clearly highly-trained in this field. That’s a huge advantage over other companies we’ve spoken to. They seem passionate about their programming language and tools, so we’ve learned a lot from them. We recommend them frequently, and my connections have also been happy with their work.

Their communication skills and price points really set them apart from our other options. They’re competitive from all angles. We appreciate their flexibility and ability to handle work independently if needed. They take whatever we ask of them and make it work. Even though much of their work is done remotely, a representative from their company stops by our office every once and a while to grow our relationship. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be really helpful to have a minimal presence in the United States for collaboration purposes. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate with them about their capabilities. If you’re doubting them, start them off on a mini-project. If you offer that and set expectations upfront, they’re sure to be happy to accommodate you before committing to a long-term relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a UK based customer data platform SaaS provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scalac, Inc.?

We needed backend development support to scale quickly but couldn't get people in-house quickly enough. We were in a similar situation at another point but needed help with frontend development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Scalac, Inc. provided a couple of services as part of our core development team. They worked on a system that uses Mongo database technology and is based in AWS. Their team provided backend development services. They wrote Scala code running in a Play Framework application server. Their team also supported frontend development using JavaScript in combination with other JavaScript frameworks including React and Vue.JS.

What is the team composition?

For the backend effort, we worked with four different people: two senior individuals, one mid-level individual, and one junior individual. For frontend development, we worked with one person who is of mid- to senior level.

How did you come to work with Scalac, Inc.?

We’re primarily a Scala development shop for our backend. It’s not that easy to get Scala resources. A team member who worked with them previously recommended Scalac, Inc. as specialists in Scala development. They’re close enough to us and the time zone wasn’t an issue because we have subsidiaries in Cologne, Germany. Their team came across as experts in their field.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about £100,000– £150,000 pounds (approximately $129,000–$194,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the collaboration at the beginning of 2019. We finished one project, but there are ongoing efforts

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re experts in the frameworks that we use and their code quality's fine. We’re executing functional Scala development, so pure functional features. They combine technical know-how with the ability to get people who are sufficiently good communicators. In the world of Scala development, it’s complex to lead because it’s a big codebase. We anticipated people taking a long time to get up to speed, but they were quick to do so.

How did Scalac, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We integrated their team into our tools such as JIRA, Confluence, and Bitbucket. In terms of approach, they’re a modern software development shop. Their team’s familiar with the best practices such as Agile methodology. They have small teams that ramp up quickly and communicate fluently. Their team must have a good recruitment process for people who are not just good coders but also sufficient communicators.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Before we started the project, they invested themselves generously. They talked with us in a number of calls, reviewing materials, which gave us the time to evaluate their understanding of our project. It’s a risk on their side because we could’ve decided to not sign the contract but it’s part of their value proposition. They invest initially in clients and their projects, which is definitely positive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing sticks out as needing improvement. You could be picky about particular aspects but in the scheme of things, they do well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure the development resources you hire to work as part of your team are a good fit. Ensure they understand, can get up to speed quickly, and blend in, especially if it’s remote work. Their team prefers remote work, so be sure that they're the right people for your team. Take the time initially to use their free consultation and go through the project to ensure that your expectations are clear.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO & Founder of Cloudadmin, responsible for the direction and vision of everything we are building. CloudAdmin is the category leader in cloud cost optimization through data centers, vars, and MSPs. We are fully integrated with AWS and Azure.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Scalac, Inc.?

Data centers don’t have a fool-proof system in place for helping businesses identify the effectiveness of their cloud consumption. The main goal of the project was to create an end-to-end solution to help data centers reduce the cost of environments in their cloud platform. The solution can optimize the usage of such environments for AWS and Azure, as well. This is an incredible niche in the market, as the data center’s mentality has significantly changed recently, and they are attempting to solve this issue manually with human beings.

What were your goals for this project?

The opportunity was to build a solution from scratch. The goal was to gather all necessary requirements and build an end to end solution. The CloudAdmin solution would then be able to reduce the cost of using cloud computing in a significant way.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have explored outsourcing companies in Poland, as I felt that there was excellent quality in terms of engineering talent and also more cost-effective than hiring in the bay area. We started with a trial period for the front end development, and after that proved to be a monumental success, I decided to engage further, and have enjoyed working with this team ever since!

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Scalac provided a complete team of dedicated engineers, to develop, test and implement the entire solution from scratch. Technologies that they used included React on the Frontend and Python with the Django framework on the Backend. During the entire project Scalac engineers created features like: Automated recommendations Intuitive user-interface Filters Groups Automated Alerts Integrations with email, Slack, SMS AWS and Azure integrations

What was the team composition?

Scalac team consisted of Frontend engineers, Backend engineers, QA engineer The number of people varied during the time of the project form 3-5 people depending on the scope of the sprint.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Scalac team worked according to the plan that we outlined at the beginning of our cooperation and completed all the featured that were included in the scope of the project. The platform allows us to meet all the needs of our customers and the solution enables future development. We’re still working with Scalac and adding new features according to our business needs. We’re acquiring new customers and partners so the value could be translated to the number of signed contracts.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was mostly on our side, but the team was very collaborative. Project management was based on the agile approach using Jira and Confluence, Slack with daily meetings.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

One of the most impressive aspects of working with Scalac, Inc. is the fact that they are incredibly flexible. They also listen to requirements. And I don't just mean technical project requirements, but also from management and organization perspective. Even when I have tasked engineers with tasks outside of their comfort zones, they have risen to the challenge. When I have asked them to work with unfamiliar technology they have passed the bar with flying colors.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I am located on the West coast, PST, so there is a 9 hour time difference between us. This has been the most challenging aspect of working with Scalac, but we have been able to smooth out this process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We create marketing solutions that connect brands to customers across devices. Our company has 50+ engineers and its headquarter is located in New York City. I work as a Senior Software Engineer Consultant serving as a Technical Domain Owner for Activation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Scalac?

Tapad allows customers to create audience segments in the Segment Build tool. Those audiences can then be activated on various partner channels using our proprietary Activation Platform. Initially, Scalac engineers were hired to extend the number of supported partner channels, that we are integrated with. After a couple of months, Scalac engineers started developing the platform, too.

What were your goals for this project?

The project's goal was to enhance Tapad's offering and integrate with the wider AdTech/MarTech ecosystem by growing the existing activation platform with more 3rd party channel integrations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Scalac was known to us thanks to a positive word of mouth in the professional network. One of the key factors was the specialization in software development in the Scala programming language, which is Tapad's primary choice. The selection process was lead by the Engineering leaders, and the Director of Talent Acquisition who was coordinating the interviewing process.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Initially, Scalac engineers were given work on the integrations library providing unified API to various advertising platforms. With time they joined the works on the activation platform that was using these integrations. Originally, the platform had been using Apache Spark to manage the load distribution of the data. Scalac consultants proposed to change this architecture and use streaming architecture leveraging Akka.

This change allowed reducing both operational cost and maintenance overhead. During the entire project, a total of 6 new integrations were created. Scalac engineers were responsible for triage with the 3rd party organizations, design, software development, and testing.

What was the team composition?

We started with a team of 3 Scalac engineers, and a number varied during the time of the project. During the project, they were accompanied by a tech lead from Tapad's end that was providing support and guidance mainly within the area of institutional knowledge and the proprietary tech stack. The engineers were involved in cooperation with Product Manager, other Tapad’s teams, customers, and representatives of partner companies.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Scalac team was delivering incremental improvements in a timely manner and accomplished all integrations that they were tasked to work on. This allowed us to expand our fit in the AdTech/MarTech ecosystem and fulfill the needs of our customers. Helping on a change of architecture that was mentioned before reduced the cost of our cloud infrastructure.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Scalac team was highly collaborative during the entire lifecycle of the project. Even though all the engineers worked in a distributed, remote environment, there were no issues with regular communication.

Project management was driven in an agile manner using Jira and Confluence, with all of the Scrum ceremonies including the following meetings: daily scrum, grooming, sprint planning, retrospective, and sprint review. We didn't face any problems neither with the language barrier nor with the time zone differences.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Personally, I was impressed by the productivity of Scalac engineers, their professionalism and practice in working in a remote, distributed environment. The team was also highly knowledgeable in the technology stack that they used.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only challenge that can be mentioned here was related to the privacy and security of the data of our customers, which was resulting in consultants’ limited access to internal systems. This was sometimes causing slow-downs in a problem resolution of issues that we have found in production environments. Being in this situation next time we should improve how we were managing accesses.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Director of Engineering of a healthcare company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a virtual-first cardiology company that delivers a range of clinical offerings, including same-day diagnostic reads, televisits and care programs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Scalac to accomplish?

Implement web services for internal systems

SOLUTION

How did you find Scalac?

Relationship at previous company

Why did you select Scalac over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Subject matter expertise

How many teammates from Scalac were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Delivered key features for our internal services to enable our clinicians to analyze and interpret diagnostics as well as perform telehealth services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our measurable outcomes surrounded quality of work and clinical adoption.

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

For the majority of the project duration items were delivered on time and needs were responded to in a timely manner. 

What was your primary form of communication with Scalac?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They had a very high dedication to customer satisfaction. 

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

I don't have any feedback specific for areas of improvement. Anytime I spoke to the representatives at Scalac about a problem they always made it a top priotity to ensure the problem was solved as quickly as possible. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product manager of a software company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Application security

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Scalac to accomplish?

• Release IDE plugin to JetBrains marketplace

SOLUTION

How did you find Scalac?

Referral

Why did you select Scalac over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Scalac were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

Take over an IDE plugin project that was faltering, upgrade the SW infrastructure and bring it to a product launch level.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Completion of the project until passing QA, UAT and publishing on JetBrains marketplace

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

Pace was good, flexibility was good. Worked closely together and adjusted to project needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Scalac?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The developer was engaged and professional. They found solutions to all issues.

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

Maybe better estimations on resolving specific issues