Virtusa

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of RunDNA

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Education and Medical Technology

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Integrating wearables data, and performing gait analysis. The work includes code audit, tech stack upgrades, DevOps support, FinOps optimizations, and implementing new features like walking modules.
• Develop and enhancing a web application for planning and tracking training

SOLUTION

How did you find ITMAGINATION?

Referral

Why did you select ITMAGINATION over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ITMAGINATION were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Our cooperation so far has involved two key aspects: the creation of a fully new walking gait analysis module, as well as day-to-day platform improvement.

On the walking module, the team worked with us on the following areas:

- Architecture and tech advisory

- UI design

- Full-stack development

The team also worked with us on several aspects of the platform improvement:

- Performing code audits

- Upgrading our .NET and Angular tech stack to the newest versions

- Support with improved DevOps processes, pipelines, and logging & monitoring capabilities

- FinOps work by removing optimizing our codebase and cloud environment to reduce infrastructure costs

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to the work of ITMAGINATION’s team, we have released our new core module to the market which brings us new growth opportunities. The team went above and beyond expectations with quality, speed, and helping us out with the final push over the weekend before the official release.

With the day-to-day improvements work, we have reduced our cloud costs by ~50%, improved application speed and stability significantly. Thanks to an upgraded tech stack and comprehensive code audit & improvements, less maintenance is required allowing us to focus on new feature development.

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

We have a Delivery Center Manager from ITMAGINATION who serves as the primary liaison between our teams. The consultants we have are experienced and self-managing for the most part, with the scope and priorities co-created with our team at RunDNA.

We also work with our Account Manager who supports with all additional aspects of our cooperation and with expansion opportunities.

Projects were delivered on time, if not early! The staff even worked on holidays and vacations to make sure deadlines were met. 

What was your primary form of communication with ITMAGINATION?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

ITMagination feels more like an extension of the company than a contractor. Their dedication and commitment to the work is similar to an employee, which is rare amongst contractors. There is a team that is there for you, and each person works hard and is available to make sure all goals are met. We are very impressed!

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

Not at this time, we are very happy with the relationship. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Sales System Leader of a pet food and snacks manufacturer.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company is founded in 1911 Virginia-based company that manufactures and markets products such as confectionery, pet food, snacks and meals across the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Unify approach to data extraction, algorithms and formulas
• Improve server productivity and connectivity with 3rd party tools
• Improve data processing and reporting

SOLUTION

How did you find ITMAGINATION?

Referral

Why did you select ITMAGINATION over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ITMAGINATION were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

ITMAGINATION provides comprehensive assistance to our team for a data project involving data extraction, uniform algorithms, server connectivity, data analysis, and Power BI showcase. ITMAGINATIONs experts focus on ensuring efficient data extraction, implementing uniform algorithms, facilitating seamless server connectivity, conducting thorough data analysis, and developing a visually engaging Power BI showcase. 

Through a unified architecture and connectivity with third-party tools, ITMAGINATION aims to optimize performance and adaptability, contributing significantly to the project's success.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

ITMAGINATION's consultants are important in achieving the project's objectives at this stage. Their architect and data engineer worked on one approach of data operations through uniform algorithms and proper set-up on the server side. Their collaborative efforts ensured the architecture's resilience and scalability, aligning closely with our team's needs. ITMAGINATION’s contribution showcases their expertise and commitment to excellence.

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

Delivery Center Manager from ITMAGINATION serves as the primary liaison for daily interactions between their consultants and our team. This individual is entrusted with the responsibility of facilitating the implementation of new requirements, modifications, and updates originating from our end.

What was your primary form of communication with ITMAGINATION?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

People in this company are very client oriented and supportive. They are professionals and open to any ideas and new features.

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

We didn't faced with this during the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO for Armadillo, a technology-based home services company providing subscription plans that cover the cost and coordination of repairs and replacements for breakdowns of major home systems and appliances. Armadillo's mission is to provide an effortless homeownership experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

ITMAGINATION is building the web-based SAAS platform for Armadillo, picking up where a previous development team left off.

The initial goals of the project are to improve the stability of the application, enhance the code quality, and build a robust CI/CD infrastructure with test automation to better support the present and future needs of the business.

After stabilizing the project the ITMAGINATION team will continue to build and develop on the product roadmap for our application. The application is being built using Angular on the front-end, .NET on the backend, and AWS as the primary cloud environment.

SOLUTION

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

We found ITMAGINATION through a referral and compared them with several other vendors. The leadership team was helpful and understood our goals and their strong technical leadership helped us to define a great plan for moving forward.

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

ITMAGINATION’s development team was hired to develop our web-based SAAS platform that another vendor was previously working on.

This is a warranty platform for home systems and appliances repairs which enables people to buy monthly subscriptions for home coverage, and then when breakdowns arise, they can report a claim and get their issue fixed from the Armadillo contractor network.

Before ITMAGINATION joined the project, we faced many issues with deployments, releasing new functionalities, and recurring bugs. The backlog was unorganized, the release and deploy process was manual, documentation was minimal, and the manual and automated testing processes were not reliable.

ITMAGINATION’s team worked on refactoring old code and implementing new guidelines & documentation that will allow for smoother product development and scaling of our web application in the future. We work in an agile project with two week sprints, using JIRA to manage our sprints.

The application is being built using Angular on the front-end, .NET on the backend, and AWS as the primary cloud environment.

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

Our core team consists of one Business Analyst, one Technical Lead, three additional developers (one front-end, two full-stack), and two QA team members (one manual tester and one automation engineer).

In addition to our delivery team, there is also a Senior Delivery/Project Manager who helps to manage the team, their progress, and the overall project with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

ITMAGINATION showed their expertise in web application development and also improved our processes by proposing and executing best practices for building software. Implementing automated testing has helped us avoid repeatable jobs which leads to speeding up the development process and increases the quality of the code.

CI/CD deployment makes us save time and catch errors faster thanks to automated checks and feedback. Using the scrum framework gives us higher predictability when delivering increments and increases the numbers of sprint goals achieved.

Thanks to backlog clarity since we started to use JIRA and detailed description of requirements, the estimation process is simplified, dependencies visibility has improved, and features development is ensured to be consistent.

Thanks to the new architecture, automated testing, and improved processes - the deployment of new versions of the application has become stable and efficient. We can reliably plan and release new features, and be confident in the stability of the new features we are releasing into production at the end of every two week sprint.

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

The project management from this team is top-notch. They are clear communicators and we regularly communicate through Slack, JIRA, and email as needed, as well as in our daily standup and planning meetings.

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

Involvement and engagement by the ITMAGINATION leadership team has been great. They set up structured check-ins with our company leadership, and have kept us constantly looped in on the team’s progress.

ITMAGINATION has practice leaders for front-end, back-end, architecture, and infrastructure, and they have been giving guidance to the team to help them build better software.

We are very in sync about how to improve the team and our processes – we started with a lot of technical debt and it's been difficult to balance that work with new feature development, but it has been very refreshing to partner with ITMAGINATION to build up our backlog of things to do and to prioritize together.

The team has been great to work with, they are direct communicators, open to feedback and work hard to build a great product.

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

The team has been great to work with, and is always open to feedback. I have no other areas for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Livingstone Group is trusted by some of the world’s largest companies and public sector organisations to control and optimize their investments in software and cloud services. Its independent expertise and technology-enabled managed services deliver successful outcomes across the entire investment lifecycle, accurately forecasting demand, mitigating compliance risks, negotiating contracts, and managing and optimising consumption.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired ITMAGINATION to be our advisor and implementation partner for our new web-based application. Our application helps our customers, some of the world’s largest companies and public sector organisations, keep track of, easily manage, and optimize their investments in software and cloud services. We needed to move to a new technology stack based on microservices architecture in a way that ensures that the app is scalable, supports cloud solutions on AWS, and makes new feature development and deployment easier.

The goals of the project are to make sure that our new platform will be better aligned with customer expectations, will allow a better settlement model, and enable us to implement a new pay-as-you-go pricing option which can help customers onboard and get value faster from our products. We also want to operate on a more flexible modern tech stack that is cloud-native on AWS and move from a monolithic architecture to microservices that will be more scalable as we grow.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking for a partner experienced in building applications in AWS and that would be able to kick off our cooperation quickly with the right skillset. ITMAGINATION impressed us with their expertise, portfolio of projects, and their ability to assemble a team with the required knowhow within two weeks. From the beginning, they were very responsive, which makes our communication incredibly smooth.

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

ITMAGINATION assembled a full-stack development team quickly with all the required roles for our development. Their work on the project includes full-stack development with .NET and Angular, DevOps engineering to prepare robust CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure management, end-to-end testing through automated test pipelines to supplement any minimal manual testing, and a data & business intelligence layer for our reporting & visualizations that are essential features of our platform.

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

Currently, the development team includes six people. Their roles vary between Full-stack Developers, DevOps Engineers, BI Engineers, and Quality Auditors (Software Development Engineer in Test).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to kick off the project quite quickly, within less than a month thanks to ITMAGINATION’s flexibility and the availability of their consultants. Throughout the collaboration, we can see that they have the required expertise and are able to hit the ground running with new feature development.

Their ability to implement our solution on AWS and also bring forward great communication skills has been very valuable to us and enabled a very smooth cooperation thus far. They are not afraid of communicating their opinion based on their experience and to bring new ideas to the table. We have a true partner relationship, and we trust their expertise. They efficiently support work on our platform and help us release new features quickly and reliably.

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

The project management is primarily done on our side. We wanted the team to integrate well with our in-house team and this also fit well into ITMAGINATION’s delivery model.

On ITMAGINATION’s side, we have a Delivery Center Manager who acts as the main liaison between the teams for day-to-day activities and is responsible for facilitating any new requirements, changes, and updates from our side. Our Account Manager helps deal with all the business-related formalities and contractual documents as well as address any immediate needs or issues.

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

The speed by which talent has been found. Hiring for tech roles in the UK have been both a slow and challenging task. Brexit has most definitely had two consequences- a reduction in the local talent pool for a number of roles, coupled with a significant increase in cost for some positions. When demand surpasses supply, the challenge becomes a lot harder. We hear the very same narrative from recruiters that we deal with. ITMAGINATION’s ability to source experienced and reliable resources has been impressive.

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

As we are working in collaboration, I think improvements are also shared. There are always going to be teething issues .. the hardest part is that we have a very niche application with numerous components- getting up to speed and accelerating knowledge share with minimal risk is the hardest part of the equation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are one of the world's leading companies in packaging solutions and are renowned throughout the world for producing plastic packaging of the highest quality.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ITMAGINATION?

We hired ITMAGINATION to help us with the organization and choice of the most relevant data from our Data Warehouse move to Azure and to build the Business Intelligence layer using Power BI.

Their team was involved in the analysis, design, and implementation of the project. This included: Data migration, MDM tools reverse engineering and re-implementation, Business processes analysis and architecture review, Data warehouse re-building based on current business needs, BI reports development.

SOLUTION

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

ITMAGINATION was invited to participate in our RFP process. They won after showing that they understand our needs well and have excellent and proven expertise both in our sector (Manufacturing), as well as the technologies used (BI and Data Warehousing).

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

ITMAGINATION implemented the Data Warehouse & Business Intelligence project in the outsourcing model where their team provided their technical expertise and handled a major part of the implementation as our technology partner. The overall project timeline took around 6 months from the preparation workshop to the final hand-off of the deliverables.

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

Throughout our cooperation, we worked with 4 people at ITMAGINATION, 3 of whom were on the core project team. Their roles varied from Delivery Center Manager, Project Manager, Data Engineer and Business Intelligence Developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to the implementation of the project, it is now much easier for our controlling team to have a broad overview of the sales and to slice & dice data to dig in deeper into specific topics of interest. Our management team is also able to report on sales, have all the relevant data in a single view with granular access control, and make decisions faster and more accurately.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Project management was arranged quite good. Sometimes more coordination would have solved some later problems earlier: We were at the beginning not very well included into the development. This should be part of the Project Manager to arrange here some alignment meetings. Most of the communication was done by documents with comments, that is good for documentation but not as effective as to talk with each other.

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

Their technical competency was very impressive. Questions were answered professional and quickly. During error handling and bug fixing meetings no big talks, just focusing on solution finding.

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

A more detailed analysis at the beginning of the project would lead to a more realistic cost and time estimate. More collaboration with the customer in the development of the back-end would be desirable.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Pricing Manager in Hochland Polska. Hochland is a family-owned cheese manufacturer since 1927. It has its production facilities in Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Romania, Russia, and the USA. Hochland delivers its products to more than 30 countries. Hochland Groups has 5,843 employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ITMAGINATION?

We hired ITMAGINATION to help us with the design and development of the database/data warehouse, data modelling, and implementation of the Business Intelligence layer using Microsoft Power BI. The business goal of the project was to create a modern, highly available reporting system serving as a single source of objective and up-to-date information for the whole organization.

An additional goal was also to have this serve as a decision-support system by enabling monitoring of the ongoing achievement of goals, trends and performance.

Adressed challenges:

•  One of the challenges was to save time for the marketing, sales, and controlling departments while searching for and combining data from various files and sources.
• Standardized data and reporting delivery system for whole company • Personalized data access

SOLUTION

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

ITMAGINATION was invited to participate in the RFP process which they won after showing that they clearly understand our needs, have top notch expertise both in our sector (FMCG), as well as the technologies used (BI and Data Warehousing) and their pricing mode is optimal. They had very persuasive way of communicating proposed solutions.

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

ITMAGINATION provided support in the form of technical expertise and outsourcing services for the project we were working on together: the implementation of the Data Warehouse & BI reporting system. Their team members integrated with our internal team as part of the project team to advise on, design, and develop the solutions needed.

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

Throughout our cooperation, we worked with over 6 software developers and data engineers at ITMAGINATION. Their roles varied from Developers, Data Architects to Data Analysts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

During first three months around 100 employees switched to Power BI from excel. Faster data processing positively impacts all analytical teams in company – fewer individual inquiries. Data integration created new reporting and knowledge possibilities.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

As expected and quite effective, despite not achieving initial deadline.

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

Big and motivated team with extensive experience.

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

Better and more accurate preliminary analysis.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Commercial Director of a leading franchise

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ITMAGINATION?

My company decided to pursue a multi channel sales strategy. We had to built e-commerce platform and associated services for our clients.

We first contracted another company to help us define patients journey and key functionalities. But it proved a failure due mainly to this vendor's lack of professionalism.

With the project already delayed we contracted ITMAGINATION to consult and prepare project technical specification and high-level architecture. They proved very professional and competent.

We managed to regain some lost time and prepare the needed documentation with only a marginal delay. They project became then a global initiative for my company and the ITMAGINATION consultants continue to work on it and greatly contribute to project's progress.

What were your goals for this project?

The ultimate goal of the project was to drive sales revenues and market share by launching a multi-channel sales strategy.

SOLUTION

How did you select ITMAGINATION?

We met ITMAGINATION representatives on a conference for multi-channel marketing and then invited them to a vendor selection process.

They didn't make it at first but made a good impression and we reached to them after the initial project's failure.

Describe the project in detail.

Building from scratch an e-commerce platform, integrated with a few company's and external IT systems.

What was the team composition?

Project Leader, 2 Business Analysts, UX Designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is sill in workings so now business KPIs can be shared. But our local initiative was well received by company management and transferred into a global strategic project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was very effective. We had regular meetings and updates. Every other week a status was held with the project leader. All issues were quickly addressed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their broad knowledge and experience impress me a lot, as well as the quality of documentation they prepare.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I see no areas for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an insurance technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITMAGINATION?

We provide a life and health insurance sales platform, and our needs constantly change and evolve. So, we hired them to enhance and modify the product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Most recently, ITMAGINATION consumed a new piece of third-party data we use to make decisions at the POS. The team also works on the capture of beneficiary information and capture of photo ID.

They use three different databases including DynamoDB, MySQL, and ElastiCache. It’s a .NET backend on the cloud side and JavaScript on the client side. The team also uses Swift and Java for mobile.

What is the team composition?

Right now, we’re working with nine teammates, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with ITMAGINATION?

We were with another offshore provider who didn’t have an automated tester, which we wanted. We then found our own automated tester, who worked with ITMAGINATION. When we weren’t getting the desired results from our other provider, we moved to ITMAGINATION.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $1 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in May 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The unit test coverage for our cloud side code went from 0% to 14% in the last 14 months. Our average web service requests went from 1.8 seconds to under 200 milliseconds. In addition, in the last three months, we reduced our bugs by nine and we haven’t added any new bugs since then. 

How did ITMAGINATION perform from a project management standpoint?

Generally, the team meets its deadlines. Their project manager is awesome, and he’s taught me a lot about project management and software development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The owners of ITMAGINATION take ownership of the projects they do. They are always aware of what’s going on. There’s also a layer of technical management between the owners and the technical leads. Additionally, the team’s knowledge, work ethic, and professionalism are all very impressive and different than I’ve seen before. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We could continue to be better technically. We’ve made mistakes as a team in our deployment of the code and in the management of the codebase. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend that potential customers test everyone they hire. We use our own third-party tests and it’s worked well. Additionally, make sure you’re briefed at least weekly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company provides and supports large corporations in business travel. We’re working to offer a platform that makes booking and expense management painless for these larger companies. The app offers solutions for the whole value chain.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITMAGINATION?

They support various teams, particularly our sourcing team. They’re our development partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided DevOps resources and took over the programming component of this project. Their team primarily worked on the backend of our app, but they contributed to the front-end of the sourcing development project. They also handled API integration for the sourcing product. In terms of DevOps, they provided AWS migration and monitoring.   

What is the team composition?

At times, a large portion of my developers is from their team. However, Natalia (Senior Client Success Manager) was my primary point of contact. We work with about five of their developers. 

How did you come to work with ITMAGINATION?

This engagement started before my time at my company. They’ve been partners here for about two years. 

How much have you invested with them?

Over this period, we’ve spent about €500,000 (approximately $544,942 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in July 2018, and the work wrapped up in March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re a big part of our team with a major impact on the quality of our products. Their developers are committed and strong in communication. The services are truly end-to-end, and they’re keen to deliver strong work.  

How did ITMAGINATION perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been working on-site in our office, so we didn’t need a designated project manager on their end. It was convenient to have them working alongside my team, and there was a minimal effort that went into managing them. With them, we always communicated through email or face-to-face.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their commitment to our company and mission has really impressed us throughout our engagement. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything went very well. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take time to onboard their developers. That’s a core part of the engagement and will help you treat them as part of the team.