Altkom Software & Consulting

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Julian Cochran Foundation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altkom Software & Consulting?

We wanted to create mobile applications dedicated to concert venues, opera houses, and free harmonics.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided them with plenty of information about what the app should look like, what kind of features it should include, and how we wanted it to function. It was built for both iOS and Android.

We asked for several core features and functionalities. We wanted to digitalize the content of the printed program notes. We also wanted a live chat feature, music score previews, and to build in GPS navigation. In addition, there's a live progress bar of the concert. It shows you in real time where you are in the concert program. There are live notifications in the app.

We also wanted to divide transformation of audio and video. In our software, audio is always live in the venue and the video is the only thing that will transmit it. The main challenge was to save the latency of the vision to work the live audios for there’s always a mistake by the artists. They had to overcome the latency that was usually a few seconds and minimalize it to a few hundred milliseconds.

What is the team composition?

We were directly working with five people, but the team was up to 15 people.

How did you come to work with Altkom Software & Consulting?

I had an existing relationship with them. We felt comfortable working together.

How much have you invested with them?

$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017. The MVP and the premiere of the app were completed in November that year. We have an ongoing relationship regarding the app software development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback was 75.8% positive in the first concert. In the second concert, we had an 89.1% satisfaction rate.

How did Altkom Software & Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We've been in constant contact because it’s been a very intensive project. The CEO was very much on board and I felt completely comfortable working with them. We used email and phone calls to communicate, as well as face-to-face meetings because our offices are close.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The engagement that the CEO has shown in the past years has made me feel very comfortable. I couldn’t imagine a better way of building up a mutual relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they've delivered more than we asked for. There was a lot of UX included in the development of the app itself. There were a lot of good suggestions on how to improve the app and what kind of features it could include.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be creative because they like creative things.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide services in the insurance industry and have expanded to services for the consumer market. The current portfolio of our products is complete, featuring the life and non-life areas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altkom?

At the time, we had 2 central insurance systems, for non-life and life offers, as well as several front-office systems for different areas of our operations. We decided to start a centralization project in order to create one core insurance system which could satisfy all our demands and have a migration process covering all our areas of operation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Altkom has provided services in the area of Oracle Java and PostgresQL technologies. Our back-office software is built using Java, and there are several technologies involved on the front-office side, including AngularJS, Liferay and Java itself.

What is the team dynamic? 

It’s quite complex as I acted as the project manager on the IT side, but was also the negotiator of the contract. They assigned around 20 specialists to our project. Their total team is about 100 members, but we had limited needs.

How did you come to work with Altkom?

They competed with 5 other delivery companies in Poland. The project was as important to them as it was to us, since their initial intention was to ultimately turn the work into an off-the-shelf solution. Because of that, their interest was much higher than that of the other competing companies. The second major factor for our decision was the budget: only one other company in the shortlist satisfied our budget limits. They were also the only company that promised to fit our critical schedule.

How much have you invested with them?

The project budget was around $1 million. From the implementation viewpoint, we had a $100,000 maintenance agreement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around 2 to 2 ½ years ago and recently completed the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve kept statistics, for example, on the number of bugs, fixing times, and any delays. There were many factors which made my general view on the project not as optimistic as I would have liked. On the client side, we also had issues which contributed to the outcome, such as requirement changes from new business areas, and not delivering agreements and specific requirements descriptions on time. These are small things which made the real-life project different from the theoretical one.

What did make the project successful was the level of collaboration, and the willingness of both sides to compromise in order to move things along. There are no specific statistics I can provide, but I consider their approach to our relationship to be a success factor. From this point of view, they were willing to do more than other partners I’ve worked with, when the budget and time were limited and strictly monitored. But sometimes they made mistakes that demand excessive levels of compromise, which might disqualify them to be a professional client, but, when there was no tension, the collaboration was very good.

How did Altkom perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated using different means, including email, phone, and a ticketing system. We only used video conferencing when it was necessary. We set up a knowledge base for the requirements side using a wiki solution and worked on it collaboratively.

In terms of technology and delivery time, I would not judge their performance based on this project. Our budget limitations and scale of work were rather disproportionate. A system of our size should cost around $3 million, but they had an internal interest in our project.

From a professional viewpoint, the time and scope did not match the cost of the project. They delivered a bit less than we hoped, and a bit later. Some would say that this is normal. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are open to mentioning where a problem lies. I appreciated their honesty and approach to our relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Based on my experience, I would recommend they improve the tool side of development. The systems they used could be better from an analytical point of view. They should especially invest in testing and documentation. Currently, our project specifications number 3,000 pages, and that’s not even all of it. We expected to receive this documentation much earlier than we did. They gave it to us after the software delivery, which is not a good way to cope with a large scope.

From a project management viewpoint, they performed well, but, in terms of delivering what the client wanted and maintaining a discussion on the budget and time, I would have wanted more understanding.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

mBank is the third or fourth biggest bank in Poland, and we specialize in mortgage bonds. We’re a member of the Commerzbank group. I’m the CIO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altkom?

We were building an application for the registration of mortgage bonds with a set of functionalities tied to the area. The was was to make a staff reduction and improve our processes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Altkom created our register software and all of its surround functionalities. It’s integrated with our active directory data warehouse, is able to exchange files with other systems, and has an email server for notifications. The technology stack included Oracle C and Java 8 for the backend, and AngularJS, CSS3, and HTML3 for the frontend.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with ten people from their side, including developers, testers, and project managers. There were two people from the business department working from our side, as well as 3–8 IT staff. The project manager from their side communicated with the product owner and business project manager from our side.

We used our own testing environment. Since we’re a bank, we couldn’t allow their team to operate remotely, so some of the work was done on-site. They were able to perform some of the tests in their own environment, aside from the integration and data testing.

How did you come to work with Altkom?

It was a long procedure involving our own regulations for sourcing vendors. We received 4–5 offers, and chose Altkom due to their pricing, technology, and flexibility in terms of collaboration and finding solutions. We had certain infrastructure requirements, and they offered the latest technologies. There weren’t many suppliers with the right experience in the banking area who could offer what Altkom was.

How much have you invested with them?

The main project cost about $300,000, and the small changes we made during 2017 cost $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2016 and finished the project in December. The product launched in January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The business owners have been happy with this system from a business perspective. We did identify some errors and throughput issues during the first two months of operation, but that’s normal. The main issue they solved was with system speed, and we also made some small changes based on user feedback. Everything was done in accordance with our time and budget.

The quality is defined by the developer’s reactions to such problems and their ability to solve them in proper time. Our business has been happy with Altkom from this standpoint.  

How did Altkom perform from a project management standpoint?

We had close communication during the project. There were periods when they were waiting for our side, and there were some problems with the anonymization of data during testing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are flexible in discussing technological and architectural issues during preparation. Altkom had good communication in these areas, and it was the most valuable attribute for us in reaching an agreement on the approach. There are other good developers, but they can be unyielding in their way of working and handling technology. Altkom allowed us to elaborate how we wanted the collaboration to occur, and also what the final product should be.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s always possible to improve, even in their case, but it’s hard for me to think of anything in particular. We found Altkom to be an efficient partner. There were issues, but we managed to solve them easily.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Staffly sp. z o.o.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

• Recruitment tests tailored to the industry, job position, and corporate culture
• Using our tools you shorten the recruitment process, based on reliable data and scientific assessment methods.

With Staffly, your recruitment becomes faster and more precise, the chances of the candidates are equal and the recruitment process is transparent.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Altkom Software & Consulting to accomplish?

• Prepare new solution for DevOps team

SOLUTION

How did you find Altkom Software & Consulting?

Referral

Why did you select Altkom Software & Consulting over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Altkom Software & Consulting were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Support services in the areas of Infrastructure as Code for Microsoft Azure and implementation pipelines.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Increase the performance of the process for developing new  UAT and PROD environments.  Staffly can deliver new features of the product for end users on time.

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

• Good communication and engagement in the work
• Tasks executed on time
• Open to disscuss and share knowladge 

What was your primary form of communication with Altkom Software & Consulting?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Altkom Software & Consulting demonstrated excellent expertise.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Altkom Software & Consulting could have done differently?

At the moment no 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Manager of the digital banking development team of Bank Pocztowy S.A.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

In Digital Product Development Department the mauin area of specialisation is delivery and implementation of system and solutions in the area of business process management.​​

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Altkom Software & Consulting to accomplish?

• Internet service (with RWD support), providing content management (CMS) and presentation of offers along with tools for simulation, calculation and comparison of offers
• Product catalogue, extensible product configurator, ensuring management of the presented banking products and preparation for sales processes
• Tools for creating business processes in a graphical editor with the ability to simulate processes
• Tools for generating and modifying sales contracts
• Console for designing and modifying online forms
• Analytical and reporting dashboard (including a clear dashboard for business people)
• The scope of jointly implemented projects included the creation and implementation of a technological platform consisting of integrated and cooperating above mentioned modules

SOLUTION

How did you find Altkom Software & Consulting?

Referral

Why did you select Altkom Software & Consulting over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Altkom Software & Consulting were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• The answer to the project demand was the implementation and development of Altkom Software's proprietary platform - Digital Product Center (PC1.0) - in the field of: Modelling and managing the Bank's product offer for the retail client's segment; 
• Handling service, sales and acquisition processes related to offering banking products to prospective clients and bank customers; 
• Management and monitoring of business processes and providing reports and management information. 

Currently, the project is at the stage of implementing further processes commissioned directly by the Bank. The following technologies were used to implement, integrate and operate the platform: Camunda BPM, Liferay, Apache Camel, Nginx, Apache Kafka, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Spring framework (Boot, Cloud, Security etc.), TypeScript, JavaScript, Angular and NodeJs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Altkom Software's professionalism, competence, creativity and flexibility allowed for the effective and quick implementation of the platform. The delivered system and solutions are used in particular in the areas of building and processing applications, sales, customer service, and after-sales service in electronic channels, call centres, CRM and back-office.

What was your primary form of communication with Altkom Software & Consulting?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We were delighted with the platform, which is fully customizable and easy to use. Thanks to this, we can easily add products and modify processes without further involvement of Altkom Software. Thus, the project is cost-effective, and cooperation is fair.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Altkom Software & Consulting could have done differently?

The cooperation is fully satisfying

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Technology Officer of Panek S.A.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Panek specializes in modern carsharing services. In other words, we allow customers to rent our cars for minutes using an application on their phone.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Altkom Software & Consulting to accomplish?

• Development of a dedicated billing system along with integrations with the existing carsharing system, payment service providers, as well as financial and accounting systems.
• One of the main challenges was the tight deadline: the system had to be delivered from scratch in just 8 months.
• The system had to be ready to support new business lines (like bike rental or food delivery), enable international expansion (multi-currency billing), and include a few unique functionalities that build our competitive advantage on the market, i.e., continuous cost calculation.

SOLUTION

How did you find Altkom Software & Consulting?

Referral

Why did you select Altkom Software & Consulting over others?

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

How many teammates from Altkom Software & Consulting were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Our company, Panek, provides a carsharing service, which is an innovative way of traveling by enabling people to rent a nearby car per minute, per hour, or per day. Users only pay for time and mileage and don’t need to worry about any other fees. Today, Panek CarSharing has more than 2500 vehicles available throughout Poland. 

Our digital transformation started at the turn of 2021/2022 when we started to apply agile guidelines to our way of work. We were planning to launch 3 large IT systems by April 2023 to reshape and improve overall Customer Experience. One of its key elements was the billing system. By July 2022, we saw that the company responsible for the implementation of the billing system was struggling to deliver the required functionalities and fix the bugs. 

That's when we decided to develop a custom billing solution- with the help of Altkom Software, which already had a large in that area. The tight schedule, 8 months, at first seemed like an impossible task. Yet, thanks to our business & financial team that created an excellent analysis and support from Altkom Software, which developed the system using ready-made AWS components, the project succeeded and launched on time. We worked on functionalities such as: 

• Publishing pricelist information
• Receiving and saving events
• Charging payment elements
• Publishing events
• Core billing
• API
• Payment components
• Documents
• Communication with the accounting system
• Currency exchange rates (integration with three providers)

The version we deployed could be described as an MVP+ since early April, the system has been deployed in production, integrated with a new car rental mobile app and the accounting system. Altkom team continues to iron out the details, smooth out functionalities, and add new elements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new billing system allows us to flexibly change our pricing model, apply business rules, and perform continuous calculations to charge the customers on the fly in very short intervals - seconds instead of minutes. These features allow us to be more competitive, receive money transfers quicker, and reduce the value and the number of outstanding payments.

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

We worked in SCRUM, 2-week sprints, with the Product Owner on our side. Our companies formed a mixed team, with shared goals and responsibilities based on role in the project. Altkoms' team work ethic is top-notch when it comes to delivery time and quality. 

The cooperation was transparent; they were very communicative and open, and we always knew the current sprint status. They always promptly responded to our requests. We formed a good partnership with mutual trust and a great atmosphere within the team. Overall, the cooperation was, and still is, very successful.

What was your primary form of communication with Altkom Software & Consulting?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their domain knowledge in both finance and cloud-native solutions is exceptional. We were impressed with their ability to quickly integrate their team and work methodology into our processes, which allowed us to start the project in an instant.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Altkom Software & Consulting could have done differently?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project Manager of Cardif-Assurances Risques Divers S.A. Oddział w Polsce/Towarzystwo Ubezpieczeń na Życie Cardif Polska S.A.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Insurance company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Altkom Software & Consulting to accomplish?

• The goal of the collaborative project was to create and deploy a system to secure outgoing correspondence sent to our bank's clients by introducing attachment encryption

SOLUTION

How did you find Altkom Software & Consulting?

current cooperation

Why did you select Altkom Software & Consulting over others?

• Referred to me
• Other

How many teammates from Altkom Software & Consulting were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The goal of the collaborative project was to create and deploy a system to secure outgoing correspondence sent to our bank's clients by introducing attachment encryption. The project involved modifying and expanding existing business processes, leading to an enhanced level of security in the following client-related procedures: outgoing correspondence, underwriting, and debt collection. 

Furthermore, additional requirements were implemented, including editing correspondence data within the underwriting application, establishing a separate process for email re-sending, and modifying correspondence templates to handle both technical and business errors. The following technologies were used : camunda, java, jsReport

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the end of each sprint, a product show took place, in which changes made in sprints were received. After the development, UAT joint tests were held to check that everything was done correctly and as ordered.

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

Project management Bezpieczne from Altkom was very professional and was at a high level. All needs reported as part of the Order were made by Altkom and we have no objections to the quality of workmanship. Communication and cooperation with Altkom have been at a very high level.

What was your primary form of communication with Altkom Software & Consulting?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We were impressed with their high-quality work, collaborative skills, openness, and full commitment to the project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Altkom Software & Consulting could have done differently?

In my opinion no. As part of the Safe Halo project, the services provided by Altkom Software & Consulting were at a very high level and we worked very well together so I wouldn't improve anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of central PMO (project management office) and group governance of a bank.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Altkom Software & Consulting?

We hired them to verify the implemented methods and techniques of our business process management (BPM) platform, which was critical for our company.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to identify performance and technology bottlenecks.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We hired Altkom Software & Consulting because of their evident domain expertise.

Describe the project in detail.

Altkom Software & Consulting did a quick assessment and code review.

What was the team composition?

We worked with one domain expert who was supported by the rest of their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Altkom Software & Consulting presented their findings in a professional manner. They delivered the necessary decision triggers and provided hints for quick wins.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was extremely effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed with their immediate reaction and timely execution.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, nothing comes to mind.