Uptime Development

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Polpharma is the largest Polish producer of drugs and pharmaceutical substances. We are active in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. We have enjoyed the trust of patients, doctors and business partners for over 80 years. We belong to the group of 20 largest generic companies in the world. We employ over 7,500 people in the Polpharma Group and associate company. We have 7 production plants in Poland, Russia and Kazakhstan, and 7 research and development centers. The portfolio of the Polpharma Group and associated company includes about 600 products, and another 200 are in the development phase. I am the Senior Programmer Team Leader.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire JMMJ?

The data about employees and their contacts with harmful substances was partially kept on paper. Our goal was to enhance the security and persistence of these records by digitizing the data. We decided to hire JMMJ to develop a solution that would help us achieve this goal.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to implement a solution that would facilitate the process of registering employees' exposure to harmful substances in a digital form, as well as enhance the security and persistence of the data.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We chose JMMJ based on their previous experience of developing cloud and blockchain solutions for businesses. The company was recommended to us by one of our previous technological partners.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project began with the discovery phase, during which experts from JMMJ investigated our case. Then, based on the findings from the discovery phase, JMMJ developed a design concept. After discussing UI/UX with future users and key stakeholders from Polpharma, JMMJ adjusted the design concept based on the feedback. Having finalized the design concept, the team was able to proceed further to the development process. As part of their development process, JMMJ conducted rigorous testing of the solution. Besides, we were required to undergo penetration and security testing conducted by an external security expert firm. JMMJ proved to be very helpful during this process. The team quickly responded to all the requests and provided us with all the necessary information.

What was the team composition?

The project had approximately seven people from JMMJ’s side. Right from the start, a dedicated project manager was assigned to our project. He was our first point of contact, was very considerate and responsive, always solved our problems, and answered the questions without hesitation. The remaining team was comprised of engineers and designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The solution is now delivered and is being tested by the first production facilities. The feedback is overwhelmingly positive - we're planning to introduce the solution to most production facilities in Poland to improve the quality and efficiency of the process of harmful exposure registration.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

JMMJ works in agile methodology. The work was conducted in two-week sprints. At the end of each sprint, we reviewed the progress(demo), provided feedback, and participated in the planning of the next sprint. The day-to-day communication was possible via email or by phone directly to the project manager

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The JMMJ is very conscientious. They often come up with possible issues and solutions for those issues before they even arise, which is incredibly helpful. The whole team is engaged with the project. If there are delays on the client’s side, they make a concerted effort to still deliver work within the deadline.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The team met all of my expectations during this particular project so it’s difficult for me to say.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the chief digital officer of an international IT consulting company. I oversee the digitization of our business processes, especially related to external stakeholders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JMMJ?

We wanted developers proficient in Umbraco and Microsoft Azure to build our website and a custom business application that improves interactions with our consulting community.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve helped us develop the entire website, integrating with Microsoft CRM. They built in custom tools to help monitor and manage leads. A job posting functionality allows our recruiters to manage applications from potential employees. The website also incorporates YouTrack to display content based on the visitor’s location.

For the business application, they helped with Azure PaaS platform architecture. This is fairly complex, from both a security and infrastructure point of view, but data privacy is a major priority.

JMMJ also provides team members who work alongside our in-house staff to extend our development bandwidth.

What is the team dynamic?

Including project managers and QA testers, we worked with a team of eight during the project’s peak.

How did you come to work with JMMJ?

We have a subsidiary in Warsaw, Poland, where JMMJ is also based. They made sense, geographically, given that we wanted a company to coordinate with our internal team.

It was also clear from the beginning that they were highly competent in Azure and offered frank opinions about our project. They’re also competitively priced, though we weren’t necessarily interested in finding the cheapest option; we wanted a vendor we could trust.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around March 2016 and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On the business application side, we've seen a significant uptick in usage from the external stakeholders most important to us: our consultants. We did a benchmark one month after launch that showed a 44% growth in monthly active users. We've also seen an increase in leads through the website.

We’ve been very pleased with both the quality and timing of their deliverables.

How did JMMJ perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily communicated through Yammer, Jira, Skype, and Visual StudioTeam Services. Senior management gets involved as needed, and they have a demonstrated ability to quickly resolve any issues that come up. For instance, we had to change the release management process for our web updates to make it more robust, so their senior leadership engaged immediately to address the challenge.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their honesty and dedication. When working on these type of projects, there will always be uncertainties. Errors will occur on both sides, so JMMJ’s ability to adapt and find solutions is invaluable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not at this point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any project, spend time during the requirements phase to ensure goals are understood.

Also, consider both sides of the financial arrangement. Everyone wants to negotiate, but JMMJ’s team has to meet a certain margin in order to survive. Since their costs are already below average from a Western European standpoint, consider giving them a bonus to provide extra incentive.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Dekra Poland is a branch of a German company. We collaborate with car fleet management companies to assess vehicles. We have an examination station, we hold workshops at dealer chains, and we perform audits and certifications. I am a middle manager responsible for application support for car fleet management companies. This includes used car auction platforms and vehicle assessment mobile apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JMMJ?

They are our main supplier of IT solutions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

JMMJ delivers IT solutions and support and is responsible for all activities that keep our systems running.

They developed a mobile app for logistics and leasing companies. It consists of a list of questions and checkboxes for operators. The information gathered is delivered directly to logistics or conflict management personnel. The app provides the ability to describe a vehicle’s main features, general state and damages, and client details alongside linked pictures. Also, we can scan a vehicle’s documents, given that in Poland, there is a QR code in each car document. This makes the process more automated and less prone to mistakes.

We delivered the questionnaire information to JMMJ along with the app structure and the technical connections of the system. Because the platform works with other systems, including our internal one, the technical part was entirely handled by their team. They prepared technical specifications as well as proposals for the best solutions and IT practices for developing the app.

At the moment, the most popular operating system in Poland is Android, with around 95% of the devices in the country being based on it. Lately, we’ve had a few inquiries about iOS, and it would be possible to build a version on it, but there is no real market need.

What is the team dynamic?

I’ve been directly in touch with 2 people from their side: the person responsible for project management and the one in charge of the technical side. We prepare general and technical requirements with their 2 contacts, and they handle production and send us the final result.

How did you come to work with JMMJ?

I started working for the company 2 years after the collaboration started, so I don’t know.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work has been around €25,000–€30,000 [$30,000–$35,000] per year.

The market in Poland is not very big when it comes to dedicated systems. For example, our mobile platform has a yearly value of around €5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration started in 2008. I worked on the first large project with JMMJ in 2011.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At the moment, we have 7 dedicated mobile platforms for our clients, and 6 auction platforms in place. Our apps are developed based on best practices from our standpoint as automotive experts, and we’ve been careful in listening to what every client needs to have on their dedicated system. We’ve given them the possibility to customize their own solutions with 80% of the construction being based on their ideas and imagination around functionalities. This means that we should have 100% satisfied customers.

We haven’t heard any complaints regarding the available functionalities and performance of our software. There are occasional technical problems, but one of the advantages of using JMMJ is that they have perfect support and are able to solve any issues immediately.

Thanks to the collaboration with their team, we deployed the first dedicated, 100% professional mobile platform for car fleet management companies in Poland. Also thanks to our collaboration, we were able to create mobile apps for vehicle assessment for personal and commercial vehicles. No one else in Poland has such a solution at this time.

How did JMMJ perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m generally responsible for identifying client needs and presenting our requirements, as well as ensuring that our best practices are employed. Based on this, we identify what the client system should look like and what kind of connections need to be made with other platforms, public or private. The information is given to JMMJ for technical execution.

We are based in the same city as their team and are mainly in contact by email. We hold workshops between our 2 teams at the start of new projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They can solve technical problems fast. If we have an idea for a new functionality, JMMJ provides 2–3 approaches for it, and — most importantly for small clients — they offer solutions at different price levels. We have basic, medium and high level functionalities, which correspond with the pricing.

JMMJ has the fastest technical support in Warsaw with dedicated personnel who can solve any issue, especially for critical systems. They are also very creative and follow the newest solutions on the market.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Our needs are 100% covered at this time in terms of modern technical solutions and support. The Polish market is limited, although growing steadily. The next step for us needs to be protecting this growth and delivering solutions, which can work efficiently for larger scales — more users, vehicles, and operations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a global leasing company operating in 35 countries. I’m located in Poland, and am responsible for new business development and innovation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JMMJ?

We were told that a mobile application might be a useful tool for our sales force in order to provide them with more flexibility and better support for activities. Our first goal was to provide an offline solution, because we have a back-office system and front-office system that work online. We were looking for a mixed solution that could work offline as well.

The solution needed to dramatically decrease the time of preparing financial quotes for our end users and customers. It needed to be easily scalable and accessible for our external partners, and not only for the people employed for the dealer, but also for the dealers not employed by us that are offering our financial products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a kickoff meeting with JMMJ where I presented our draft for the app. We had some visualizations as far as concept goes of how we wanted it to look. It took us 2–3 days to flesh out the scope, then the project was changed by 20%–30% due to JMMJ’s technical feedback.

They are experienced and were able to change elements and aspects of the mobile app that were not well-designed in terms of user experience. We concluded the list of elements of the project that needed to be prepared, then we started working. We’ve also approved the visualization of the final app.

They’ve incorporated our Excel guidelines into their programming and development, and also created an integrated and sophisticated calculation engine.

What is the team dynamic?

Initially, there were 4 team members from JMMJ, but now we have 6. We are still working on the app, and are constantly making upgrades depending on feedback from users. We’ve got a team member that is responsible for user experience, 2 that are taking care of the webpage or API, 2 that are responsible for the mobile app, and another person who manages the engine and prepares quotes for the calculation.

How did you come to work with JMMJ?

We found 8–9 companies from different parts of Poland online and assessed them. We looked at their portfolios, and since we had decided that we didn’t want to work with a startup, we also considered the maturity of each company.

At the end of the process, we decided to work with JMMJ as our service provider. They proved to be knowledgeable and that they could easily translate our ideas into a mobile app. We were also looking from a price perspective, and their offer was at the midpoint of the market, which was perfectly acceptable for us.

How much have you invested with them?

Confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2016, and the major part of the project that was contracted between our parties was finished at the end of April 2017. We are currently asking for modifications and new features to be built into the app for the next release.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The sales force has provided feedback, and they said the product is a game changer. We thought for the first stage of implementation we would only roll out the app amongst the people who are working for our business. We were present in 5 segments of the market, but after 3 months of gathering feedback from those working in the field, we’ve decided to expand it to all of our business lines.

How did JMMJ perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve been working here for 10 years, so I have experience with 3 other developers who have previously provided us with different solutions. One of the key elements of JMMJ’s corporation is their responsiveness. They’re excellent. We write an email containing a request for an additional feature or concerns regarding technical issues, and in less than a week we either have an updated version or a new release of the app. They’ve worked pretty fast, and learned easily when we asked them to prepare a sophisticated calculation engine. They’ve learned from our materials that we prepared in Excel to translate those mechanics to C++, or whatever the language may be.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very responsive. It’s very easy to work with them in terms of translating ideas into app features. If a client has an idea, they don’t have to describe it in vivid detail because JMMJ’s team can fill in the gaps. They ask whether certain elements should be done in a specific way, and also check things twice to ensure they haven’t missed anything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should be more aggressive in terms of approaching new customers. Their portfolio looks small, but they have huge potential as a company. We didn’t encounter any major problems with them in terms of communication or delivering on time. They’re an A+ company.

Do you have any advice for potential clients?

I suggest listening to what they say, because their advice is very helpful. However, their team is a bit shy, so a client that is too bossy may become problematic.