AdvantISS

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a legal services firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with AdvantISS?

We were looking to digitize all of our processes. We handle many bureaucratic processes that require documents and other long processes. I contacted AdvantISS to gather all of this into a single platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team developed a JavaScript platform to process documents based on client replies. The platform also allows our clients to upload documents. It integrates with our local server and HubSpot.

What is the team composition?

We had two full-time developers, a tester, a frontend developer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with AdvantISS?

I found them on Upwork. We posted the project, and they applied. We decided to have an interview after seeing their references and past work. We put together a business proposal, and from then on, we started working together.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around €80,000 (approximately $97,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

Our collaboration started in May 2020.

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

At the moment, we have 1,000 clients using the platform, and about 300 of those are older clients. Before, we had to work on files for those 300 clients, taking about 20 to 30 hours per file.

With the platform, we’ve reduced that to about half an hour, which has lowered our costs significantly.

How did AdvantISS perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, it’s been very good. They have great communication. We spoke through Slack and have a shared drive, which all works perfectly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When we interviewed companies, we asked them to send a proposal of activities and schedules for the project. Their team was the only one to provide us with detailed information and specific milestones.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly couldn’t say anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients can trust their skilled team. They’re also great at helping clients develop their ideas. If you know what you want and need, they can translate that into a product with great expertise.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of the product development team. I head up both the design and software development implementation. We are a small company and we would still call ourselves a startup.

We are building some fairly complicated software products which are used by manufacturing companies for doing simulations of different aspects of their production lines.

The actual technology itself has 3D components for all of the graphical rendering part of the simulation but it also has a series of control features and dashboards which are accessed through a web browser. There is quite a broad range of technologies that are involved.

What challenge were you trying to address with AdvantISS?

We were looking to get into a fairly long-term relationship with a vendor that could bring a full package of experienced developers but who could also contribute some architectural elements, and that we could outsource QA engineering set up as well because it is actually quite difficult to recruit for in Denmark.

It isn’t a popular thing for qualified undergrads. It is either pretty expensive to set up an operation like that, or the professional standard is pretty low. Those are the few things we were looking for there.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to pretty much outsource most of our web stack development to them. It was full-stack .NET technologies and JavaScript frameworks on the frontend. They ended up working up primarily with C#. .NET, Angular, and Vue.js. 

We have an in-house team that is focused on the 3D part, and we have a senior project architect and CTO on our side as well that also have the senior decision making role, but we have outsourced some of that decision making.

The main features were still designed on our side and the specification of the release schedule is still managed on this side, but they earned some semi-autonomous status on working within the broad guidelines which we set. That is a result of the fact that we have been working with them for over two and a half years.

Over time, we have been able to build that relationship with them which goes beyond what you would expect to have in a standard outsourcing set up. That isn’t necessarily what everyone needs or is appropriate all the time but for us, it has worked out really well. It is good to mention that we have had success in working with them in that way.

What is the team composition?

On an ongoing basis with them, we still have frontend specialized developers, backend specialized developers, QA engineers and we have a part-time software architect resource working on their side. Later on, we also added a project manager on their side to take more of the tasks, planning, and time management and those kinds of administrative tasks that they could become semi-autonomous.

How did you come to work with AdvantISS?

We were generally looking to outsource certain aspects of the development, either that we wanted to have more flexibility or we had difficulty recruiting locally. There is quite a lot of these outsourced crews that work in Ukraine that are targeting the Nordic area where we are. A lot of companies are approaching directly from that area, but we also reviewed a Ukrainian focused outsourced portal where there were a lot of teams.

We filtered them by which teams had the right experience profiles for what we were looking for which was specifically Angular and Vue, which was quite an uncommon technology for people to be experienced with at that time. We wanted a company that was used to working on B2B software products, and for example, we didn’t want B2C developers as I think they are the wrong profile for our product.

They were one of around 10 to 12 outsourced recruits that we set up interviews with, and at the end of the day, it was a combination of their presentation, their expertise, professional competence, and price. They had the right sweet spot, so they were the ones that we picked.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent €125,000 Euros (approximately $150,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them around March 2018, and we are still working with them.

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

They have been very important to us for making some customer deliveries on three or four occasions during that period. Our customers are very large companies, and we have a small number of big projects.

We don’t make deliveries that often, but the three or four deliveries we have made to customers have been very much involved in developing features that were required by that project or requested by the customer during the sales process. That is obviously been a very important contribution to the delivery side. I think they have made an important contribution to us when we have discussed migration to more modern technologies, especially around frontend technologies.

I think that overall, they have had a very noticeable impact on the quality of our software build release cycle. As the product has become more complex, they have played a strong role in ensuring that the QA engineering side of the testing framework has been implemented in a good way that has helped us to not just maintain but improve the quality.

How did AdvantISS perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Jira and Slack which are the two key technologies for us to collaborate. They have some in-house client keeping software. We probably have the longest relationship of any of their customers. It has been pretty successful, so we keep adding to it.

It has worked really well and shows that they have become, in some sense, quite invested in our products. They understand the technology, but they also understand who our customers are and what the most important use cases are.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say the effort they have put into understanding our product and customers has been key to the successful collaboration and is the reason why we have a lot of trust in their capability to deliver for us. If we have a customer project, I wouldn’t hesitate to include them in some of the important elements of that because their track record and professionalism has worked out very well for us.

I think it has really has been based around the fact that the relationship is close and their investment in our product is something I would not have expected when I started, and I don’t think I could have done that with just any outsourcer, and I think it marks them out as being a little bit different.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There must have been things along the way because we have made changes to the way we work and we have altered the configuration of the team. There have been some developers that didn’t work out as well as other ones and who we decided to move on from. They have helped us to find more appropriate replacements that just worked out better on our team. There is nothing significant that they should improve on.

The level of English in Ukraine is not as high as it is in Denmark as a second language, so in the beginning, I think we had a few times where there was a misunderstanding about feature requirements or things like that but it is just a case of stopping there, clarifying and make sure we understand. That is another example where they have been responsive to it.

I was quite skeptical about how it would all work out. I was worried about the things that a lot of people are worried about and that they wouldn’t be invested in the same way as a local team member is, or what if their standard wasn’t high enough. I couldn’t have been more wrong really.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I have found it has always worked out well for us to have a good dialogue with them and explain clearly what it is that we require.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Synapse Team Ukrainian-based software development company. Our partner had a request to develop a web application with the C# .NET and React technology stack. Since we didn't have any C# .NET developers on our team, we started looking for a company that would help us with this technology.

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

We were looking for a trusted staff augmentation partner who can strengthen our team with needed engineers in a short time. We were interested in hiring C# .NET engineers with business automation software development experience.

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

They provided relevant candidates for our request. We interviewed potential candidates(welcome and technical interview). Then we approved them for our project. It was fast and very high quality

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

The project is to design and develop a website for the medical staff at one private hospital. This will allow them control over every aspect of patient turnover, management with their equipment among other things in order help ensure efficient care delivery while also preventing any potential errors from occurring

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

We have cooperated with their front-end and back-end software engineers. The team lead was from our side.

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

Their speed was great and the tool suits our needs perfectly.

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

The team leverages its technical expertise to provide effective solutions.

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

Their flexible terms of cooperation, willingness to make changes, and develop the project were outstanding! Besides, this team can mold their basic partnership methodology to your needs. We always stayed true to project goals.

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

Nothing comes to my mind on what they could have done better.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of a learning game company with HQ in Denmark, Copenhagen where we serve global companies and organisation with engaging digital learning solutions.

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

We have throughout different client project identified a potential product that we wanted to develop. We didn't have the necessary capacity inhouse, and wanted a dedicated team to develop the product.

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

We have experience with them from related companies that delivered good work and services previously,..

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

They developed a SaaS solution using .NET and JavaScript (Angular) using the framework ABP and SurveyJs to make a collaborative dilemma learning platform that can. They delivered a fully working solution that is now being maintained and expanded as more customers are joining the platform.

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

The team size have varied a bit but there have been a core team of around 4,5 people with an Senior lead, full stack, backend, QA and PM.

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

The response to the product is very positive.

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

The project management is good and kept within JIRA, so there is a hub for everything. We communicate regularly through Slack, and the team is very responsive.

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

This project started 6 months prior to the conflict in Ukraine, and ran 6 months after - and is still running. Despite the Ukraine war, there has been no impact on the services and quality delivered, which is highly impressive. This speak to the high professionalism of the company.

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

Nothing comes to mind.