Velocity Partners

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager for an entertainment company with several brands and websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Velocity Partners?

We were working on a Kids & Family website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Velocity Partners developed our website using GRAILs. It’s a games platform aimed at kids & Family.

We have localized versions of the site for multiple regions around the world like Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

As part of the site’s roadmap, they migrated to Amazon Web Services using best a fast practices.

What is the team composition?

The initial team had seven members including backend and frontend web developers and a tech lead.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of their work was over $100,000. It was a large engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

The site was launched seven years ago and they’ve performed continuous improvements and maintenance on it. We have an ongoing collaboration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team has contributed to site improvements. They’ve helped us increase our traffic by improving the site’s loading time. Also, the automation that they utilized in the coding process helped us save a lot of money and time when building new components.

Additionally, our internal members always request help from Velocity Partners when there is an issue to solve. Velocity Partners was selected to travel to New York on a couple of occasions in order to help our team there.

How did Velocity Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They use our internal tools, Jira, and GitHub. We also use other communication systems including phone, Lync and Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Velocity Partners did a very good job maintaining our style across the localized versions of the site.

One of the strengths of their team is that they have a combination of frontend and backend skills as well as infrastructure. They’ve always found ways to improve our coding standards. They are always helpful, and we are happy with the team. Their level of commitment and project orientation make them stand out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They work very autonomously and they are able to push the work forward.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I simply recommend that clients work with them. Velocity Partners is a committed and strong team.

BACKGROUND

Could you provide a brief description of your organization?

We work in the restaurant takeout business, essentially connecting hungry diners with restaurants. We have an e-commerce company with significant Web presence nationally and in the United Kingdom.

What is your position?

I’m the vice president of engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you first approached Velocity Partners?

It was a matter of scaling our resources adequately. It was actually a new development initiative. We are replatforming our applications, and we wanted Velocity Partners to help us scale out our development capabilities. That was the original challenge.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of work in greater detail?

The way we work is, we have a team in Argentina and then we have a team lead and often engineers here, working together in the same scrum process. They’re essentially a part of the same sprint, part of the same scrum, they are working off the common backlog, and it works very well. Everything they do is custom development and some testing, but we also conduct our final quality assurance and control here in-house.

How did you select Velocity as your solution partner?

I had actually worked with them before, at a different company. I used to work with them in the capacity of head of engineering at Bluefly, which is another ecommerce company. I was already familiar with the caliber of their work, and since we already had an existing relationship, it made sense to approach them.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this project?

I can’t, unfortunately. It’s an ongoing process and we didn’t commission them on a project-by-project basis.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback you’ve received that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

This is a long-term engagement wherein they’re essentially part of the team and working with us consistently. We began collaborating with them in the spring and there’s really no end in sight. Their effectiveness is demonstrated by the fact that we’re considering them an ongoing partner, we consider them part of the core delivery team. As far as metrics, I don’t have specific numbers because they’re part of the team. It’s not a per project engagement. We have, however, been extremely satisfied with them as a partner. They’ve consistently been able to exceed our expectations, and we’ve never experienced issues with transparency or communication.

When working with Velocity Partners, is there anything you’d consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

They definitely treat you as a part of the team. They don’t have the consulting methodology of throwing broken stuff over the fence. They’re definitely people that care, and people that will stay late if they need to, and support you through releases and problems. We’ve had engineers stay with us throughout the night, if needed. They take real ownership of the work, rather than simply taking instructions and meeting certain delivery criteria for the sake of doing so. I’ve been particularly impressed by that characteristic.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Velocity Partners could improve as a service provider?

There have been a few occasions in which they haven’t been able to offer us the resources we’ve requested. This is few and far between, but it’s something we’ve experienced with all offshore partners. To some degree, I think it’s the nature of the beast, but it’s still an area for improvement, of course.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for an energy company focused on oil and natural gas pipelines, power generation, and some energy marketing, too. That’s the focus within Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

What is your position?

I’m a manager for our project office in IT [information technology].

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you first approached Velocity Partners?

There were a few of them. We require considerable custom software development around to our key lines of business and commercial systems. We were running into issues with internal bandwidth, so we wanted to find additional support. We knew we needed to partner with a firm that had extensive knowledge of the technologies and platforms we used. It was twofold. We needed support to help complete our projects, but we also needed to ensure that the support we found would be able to keep up with us in terms of quality and consistency. We also had to make sure that our workflows and corporate cultures aligned well.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of work in greater detail?

They offered software development services, quality assurance and testing, and project management. Right now, we’re working with them on two projects, one with a blended team consisting of our resources and their resources, and another one where they’re doing all of the development. They’re primarily working with our SQL server, and .NET is the main development technology we’re using in both cases.

How did you select Velocity Partners as your preferred service provider?

We were looking for a software developer to replace another partner we were working with on a different project in the U.S. We went through a short-listing process with a core set of potential vendors. They all conformed to agile development practices, and they had remote capabilities, too. They were one of the companies on our short list of vendors. They weren’t successful in getting that particular line of business, but we kept them on our list of people to work with in future projects. When another project came up in which we needed support with a blended team, we decided to back and approach them again.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this particular project?

One project is probably going to fall right around $1 million, and the other project is going to be somewhere around $5 million to $10 million.

Do you have projects that remain ongoing with them?

Yes, both of these are ongoing projects right now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

One of the two projects only began recently, so it’s relatively early. However, the project started and they’ve done their first full iteration as of last week. They’ve actually been able to exceed what was expected in terms of delivery in that very first iteration. That’s a very positive initial indication on the project flow, which is great. Not only do I consider that rare, I think it’s rarer when the project remains in the beginning phases.

The other project is a blended team of developers. This project has remained ongoing for a while and we’re just moving through the midway point now. We keep track of our ongoing efficiency and, in time, that speed has improved drastically. They’ve been an integral part of the process.

When working with Velocity Partners, is there anything you’d consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

The strengths they have are their flexibility, and the ability to collaborate and integrate seamlessly with the company they’re working with. That was one of the key things that we noticed. They can bring a process to the table, but they prefer to work with their customer to develop the process. They’ve got some real flexibility in how to deliver the project. Their flexibility adds a lot of value to the process and ultimately speaks to their commitment to client satisfaction.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Velocity Partners could improve?

The challenges we have, and it’s not necessarily related specifically to Velocity Partners but, in general, is ensuring we have the highest quality resources available to us. You’re always going to have a mix of resources that are top notch, and some that aren’t quite as skilled as other ones. You can’t have everybody be number one. It simply doesn’t work that way. Being able to assess the skill level of the resources actually available at the time would be very beneficial.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

We do talent management software. We build software, or a talent solution platform for the services industry, like restaurants and convenience stores.

What is your position?

I’m the vice president of technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges that you were attempting to address when you first approached Velocity Partners?

We’re a startup company, so at the time, we weren’t able to hire full-time employees, or a team big enough to give us the capacity that we needed to develop the software. We reached out to Velocity Partners to help increase our capacity on the development side without incurring the actual full-time cost of new hires. We also simply didn’t have the time span to invest in recruiting qualified developers to incorporate into our team. That was the original challenge.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of work in greater detail?

We’re a .NET development shop, and that’s expertise that they were able to provide. We’ve had up to six different scrum teams operating at a single time with them. Their work is really relegated to custom development on the Microsoft stack. They deal with the requirements gathering, scoping, the custom development and testing.

How did you select Velocity Partners as your service provider?

We were already using a different development company, and weren’t particularly pleased with them. I can’t remember exactly how we came across Velocity Partners, but I started talking to Brian Estep [senior partner at Velocity Partners], who is my point of contact over there, and just understood what their company was doing. One of the things that was a big plus for us was that they require all of their developers and QA [quality assurance] team members to speak competent English. We do a lot of collaboration with all of their teams, so that was one of the big things. At our previous company, there was only a single person that we could talk to, and they would translate everything. Now, we’re able to sit down and have Skype conversations or use GoToMeeting with their developers. The fluidity of the communication is a huge plus and very much essential for effective agile software development.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this project?

On an annual basis, probably right around a million dollars.

This remains an ongoing relationship, correct?

Yes. That’s right. We still have several ongoing projects with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

Given that we run a scrum process, we’re doing two-week sprints all the time. They’re constantly delivering something to us every two weeks. They don’t miss a delivery. Then, we have four major releases a year, with minor releases in between the major releases. They have the biggest part, we actually integrate with E-Verify inside of our product, which is a government set of APIs [application programming interfaces] that we call. They’ve basically handled that single handedly and without issue. They’ve learned the U.S. I-9 process, and all the rules and regulations. They also manage a lot of our software for us. We’ve been very satisfied with them.

When working with Velocity Partners, is there anything you’d consider unique about their approach and/or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

We try to treat them like any other development team here in-house, so we expect them to proactively come up with ideas and solve problems. There are a lot of offshore and near-shore businesses that basically take your instructions and follow them word for word. You really end up with a mechanical relationship in which the client dictates and determines everything to the vendor. We didn’t want that kind of relationship. We wanted more of a thought partner. The nice thing with these guys is that we can sit down, give them the problem, and they’ll actually help us brainstorm possible solutions and even conduct the research. They add some real value to the process rather than being only a passive recipient of instructions.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Velocity Partners could improve as a service provider?

No. Not really. We’ve had a very successful relationship with them. We’ve had up to six teams with them. We only have three scrum teams with them now, but that’s due to our growth. We’re becoming more of a mature company and getting out of that startup phase. With that growth, we’ve started hiring more full-time team members. Because of that, we’re able to cancel some of the teams that we’ve had with Velocity. That has less to do with their services and more to do with the nature of our business and our structure moving forward. Relationships change in time depending on circumstances. I have to say that we’ve been very impressed and very satisfied with everything they’ve done so far. We don’t have any complaints.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for WebMD's Health Services Division. My division handles what we call the project portal, so we create and provide, in the cloud, a variety of tools that help people evaluate medical information and services. 

What is your position?

I’m a senior software development manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you first approached Velocity Partners?

One of our biggest challenges was having a team of software developers that use the agile software development methodology. Our products are very complex. Because of that, having a team that understands the complexity of our platform, and then be able to build upon that, was crucial. We were looking for qualified developers to support our technology initiatives. We didn’t want a bunch of coders that we’d have to micromanage constantly. We wanted developers with enough knowledge and expertise to be able to operate independently of us, with very little direction.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of work in greater detail?

On the technology side, we’re a .NET shop, so they used that with us to a large extent. They also worked with Ajax and SQL. It’s been a lot of custom work. Their team, in addition to writing our software and testing it, also worked closely with our database administrators to design the scheme in time. Outside of building the functional software from scratch, they’ve also handled our quality assurance and testing or most of it.

How did you select Velocity Partners as your offshore developer?

I was not the individual responsible for selecting them. I worked closely with another person here in our integration team. Her name is Becky James. She was very eager to find some additional resources that would help us during our open enrollment period.

Because of the nature of our software and the industry we work in, having a viable, workable solution is crucial. We can’t very well have people receiving the wrong or inaccurate medical information. It was made clear from the beginning that quality and consistency were going to be the two most important factors in our evaluation. Of all the vendors we approached, it was Velocity Partners that had the clearest record of being able to meet our requirements. More importantly, they’d worked on some very large and complex projects in the past. All of them were successful.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this project?

Most of the projects are a half a million to about $3 million. That’s a general range, although sometimes they do go as high as $7 to $10 million.

How long have you maintained an ongoing relationship with Velocity Partners?

We’ve been collaborating together for slightly more than four years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

I can’t really share any specific figures or metrics, but I can tell you several of our clients that have received a solution developed by Velocity have been extremely impressed. The custom software and the integrations are relatively complex. There are a lot of moving parts and external dependencies involved. Velocity Partners doesn’t seem to be burdened by these things. They’ve always managed to deliver extremely high quality work for a fraction of the price we’d receive here in the states. 

When working with Velocity Partners, is there anything you’d consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

What has distinguished them from other vendors is that they’ve been very willing to listen to us, and not just through our retrospectives, but also whenever we have recommendations around approach. They’ve been very open and flexible. This isn’t always the case with developers, especially when you’re working with an offshore team. They’re also great at execution. They can take our insights and recommendations and incorporate them into the development process with relative ease.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Velocity Partners could improve as s service provider?

The one area I think all of our partners could improve is being better about asking questions when they’re unclear about the requirements. Because we’re using agile user storage, the storages themselves are really placeholders for much more detailed information around the requirements. In many ways, our requirements are essentially discovered through conversations. When they’ve had to make various architectural choices between alternative user paths because they’re an offshore developer, if they’re not able to get a response within a day or so, it makes it much more likely that they will end up guessing, rather than actually asking the question.

We’ve been working with them to urge them to send us those questions, even via text message or Skype. Even if they’re not able to get a hold of us immediately, that way we’d have an opportunity to address those questions rather than have them move forward without guidance. Even though we’re doing development in two-week sprints, we can usually burn two or three days of development time if they choose to go the wrong direction with a solution. The teams that I work with are much more aware of that, and certainly during the last year and a half, but it’s always an area for improvement, especially if they get new developers incorporated into the team.