Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?
Our model is not a typical one. Our company is directing the projects, and we decided which resources to hire. We also manage and train people directly. ABTO Software has always supported our need to hire good-quality people, and they were flexible enough to allow us to optimize for productivity, leaving this area under our control.
Many providers have wanted a level of opaqueness about what costs go into, in order for them to maximize profits. We know exactly what ABTO Software's profit is, so nothing is hidden. They have no incentive to obscure anything. Other companies may not run their businesses as well, so they need to have more flexibility, keeping key players working on several different teams. It's much more profitable to hire low-quality people than it is to hire high-quality ones, so most companies will not have a high-quality staff. We've required that all of our staff be high quality. ABTO Software has been open, honest, and very flexible, supporting our business model and not getting in the way of it. We've been able to do business with them as a result.
Early on, we needed ABTO Software's services much more than we need them now. We needed to set up an office in another city within a couple of weeks, which ABTO Software did with excellent performance. I've always been able to count on ABTO Software for anything that we needed, even if it was outside of what they usually do.
How did ABTO Software perform from a project management standpoint?
A strength for ABTO Software is the fact that they were always focused on having high-quality developers managing the work. This allowed us to have a common understanding of how we wanted things to work, which isn't always true for other companies. We used Rally for project management, which was the tool that we had in place when we started working with ABTO Software.
What distinguishes ABTO Software from other providers?
Working with ABTO Software works. I've had a lot of experience in this industry, and there are many ways in which things cannot work. Coming from an engineering background, I've appreciated being able to work with a company that understands our actual needs and has made an effort to support them.
ABTO Software has been investing in growing their business in a very moderate way. They don't try to grow too fast, but they also don't try to stay small, either. There is a practical approach, less entrepreneurial, compared to a United States company, but very stable.
Is there anything ABTO Software could have improved or done differently?
There is nothing that would be significant to anyone else. The standard of development in Ukraine is different to the U.S. one. I don't think that ABTO Software is better or worse than anyone else, but we've often asked for things that other customers may not have necessarily cared about, like higher escape plans.
The team adapted their project management style to fit the preferences of the company's internal management. The team delivered the project on time without any issues. The team worked quickly to deliver updates and changes that impressed the company.