Andersen Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

A system integrator who develops IT systems for the benefit of commercial and government organizations. Project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Organization of testing an IT product that has developed in accordance with the Agile ideology. Andersen employees were tasked with organizing the joint use of automated and manual testing with the formation of a detailed general report on the test results in each iteration on a regular basis.

SOLUTION

How did you select Andersen and what were the deciding factors?

The company was selected based on the results of cooperation on previously successfully completed projects

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

Based on the results of several workshops, a product stack (Selenium, TestRail) was selected and approaches were developed for organizing testing processes. 

As a result of the work carried out, it became possible to conduct product testing with various sets of checks with the possibility of receiving a detailed and visual report with the test results by the Project Manager and technical managers

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

A team of 4 QA engineers was involved in the project

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The time spent on testing and evaluating its results has been reduced by at least two times. The process has become much clearer

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

YouTrack is used to manage the project. Regular Skype conferences are held

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

The qualifications of their employees and the degree of their involvement in the project set them apart.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior software engineer at Greenwald Industries. We create coin and phone vending devices for automatic laundry rooms. Our company works with customers throughout the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We’re starting to move into the mobile app space, so we hired Andersen to build our Android app. They’ll soon be the provider for our iOS app as well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

They created a laundry payment app that allows users to start washing machines and dryers from their phones and pay for the vend. 

In the beginning, we presented them with mock-ups of how we wanted the app to look, and their team enhanced them. Once we approved the designs to use for Android and iOS, they went off to build it.

They’ve assigned a project manager who leads the development team on their side. Since I work on the backend side to create the end points that the apps are interacting with, they work closely with me to ensure everything is functional.

What is the team composition? 

There are three members currently — soon to be four. I talk to Olga (Project Manager) daily, and then there’s Vladimir (Chief Resource Officer). There’s also a tester, and we’ll be onboarding an additional iOS resource.

What is the status of this engagement?

They’ve done a couple of projects with us. The latest one started in January 2020 and will wrap up in August. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had lots of good feedback on the app. Our clients and their users are happy with it, which means they buy more from us. In that sense, the app is a gateway to sell additional products. And, we’ve had some large orders directly related to the app, which is huge.

As far as functionality, we haven’t gotten any complaints. They have a good eye for UI design and flow. Often, we’ll ask for one thing, and they’ll suggest something different that would be better — and, they’re usually right!

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve had a great experience working with Andersen. They’re always on top of things, bending over backward and working on weekends to help meet deadlines. We talk over Skype probably close to 6–7 times per day. Time zones can be tricky, so it’s really helpful that they answer at all hours of the day.

The general process is that I will get a request and create a ticket for them using their built-in system. Then, I walk them through it over Skype to make sure that they understand what we need and answer any questions. They’ll assign the ticket to a developer to process before giving me an updated version of the app to test.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s two things — the first is meeting very tight deadlines. They’re comfortable with putting resources on a task to make sure that we hit the turnaround that we need for our clients. 

The other is the quality of work. They usually get things right the first time, so I don’t have to keep retesting a build and sending it back for another version. That cuts down the time I spend redoing work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they provide exactly what we need. Obviously, we like them and will increase our usage with them. We’re actually moving everything from an old development firm to them as of next week.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Voxxify. We survey employees of large companies to help their management to find issues with IT.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

I didn’t have a strong development team and I needed to move from my MVP to a scalable, enterprise-grade platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, it was business analysis and UX design. They captured the overall business flow and process and set up the project backlog. Then they designed the UX for different navigable elements of the platform. Now they’re working on development. The first part will have enough features to demo to customers and the second part will be a fully functioning platform.

What is the team composition?

Initially it was a small team with a BA, UI designer and project manager. As we moved into development the team grew to include Java & React developers, QA analysts and DevOps.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

I got a referral from a fellow business owner.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2020 and our project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, it was a very good quality service. The developers are very high quality, very knowledgeable. On the design side of things, they did pretty well. The design was good and I was satisfied with the result.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

The way the project was structured was very good. I joined the daily stand up for decision-making guidance, but they managed their team internally. I was very happy with communication and management.

It took a few iterations to get to a point where I was very comfortable enough I felt I had the information I needed to make decisions on funding and timelines. After a few sprints, we set a reporting cadence and the quality of the information was good enough for me.

They use Jira for agile development and Sigma for prototyping and design. Then we communicate through Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re on top of their work and they flag issues early. They’re very friendly and personable, so they’re easy to work with. The quality of developers is excellent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As the founder of a startup, the budget is very important to me. Although they were very transparent on the budget and timeline, some more effort was needed to pull information and present it in a way that users understand.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set clear expectations of what you need in terms of budget and planning.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the development team lead for the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We needed to find experienced developers and QA engineers in order to complete some customer projects. It’s essential for us to provide quality products to our enterprise customers, as we don’t have the option of making frequent updates.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andersen provides C# and AngularJS developers and QA engineers. They help us to develop the UI and core components of enterprise products.

What is the team composition?

We use six developers and a QA engineer from Andersen, and we have 25 internal developers.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

We found them 5–6 years ago. I don’t remember who initiated our contract with Andersen. We had several custom projects with them before initiating them into our enterprise projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Andersen in October 2018. We started with two developers, and we expanded the team in February 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Andersen has successfully delivered on time since we started working with them. We calculate quality through the number of defects reported by our internal QA engineers and those from Andersen, and the quality delivered by Andersen is the same as that of our own engineers. This is a good sign for us. Andersen’s engineers stick to the estimates they give, and they provide meaningful explanations for those implementation and verification times.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a large development team, and they’ve helped us meet all of our deadlines and business goals. The communication is open and transparent. Andersen’s engineers immediately report any problems they identify, and they try to mitigate risks and identify how we can solve problems. I don't significantly differentiate between my engineers and those from Andersen. We work as one team and follow the same process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They can do any work that we pass to them. Even if they don’t have experience in a particular area, they investigate it and come to us with a solution or recommendation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have periodic meetings with their engineers to discuss any problems, and we’ve solved any issues during those. Right now, I have no additional feedback for Andersen.

I’m satisfied with the engineers working on my project right now, and we’ll continue working with Andersen if we decide to expand the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CTO at a software development company headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Our company has about 50 employees. I lead R&D department in the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

We didn’t have inhouse mobile app developers at the early stage of the company’s development, so we need to outsource mobile developers from Andersen to develop mobile clients for our product.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to develop and release iOS and Android clients for our EdTech service.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We conducted a market research and selected three contractors we are interested in. After a series of interviews with engineers, we selected Andersen as the main contractor.

Describe the project in detail.

The main goal of the project was to develop android and ios applications for our EdTech service, which had only a web client until 2018. My role in the project was to manage and coordinate the design, development and testing teams. Andersen engineers were responsible for the development of Android and iOS applications.

What was the team composition?

We assigned one android developer and one ios developer for this project. The size of the Andersen team didn't change over time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have managed to release iOS and Android apps on time in accordance with the product launch plan after 8 months of hard work.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Andersen engineers were easy to communicate with. We had daily skype standups with Andersen team. We set and tracked tasks in Youtrack task manager.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Andersen mobile developers are highly skilled and they have met most of our product requirements without comments.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything can always be done faster, but we were satisfied with their work. We made very interesting product with their help.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director for a global financial solutions provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

I started a year and a half ago, and our company wasn’t an experienced tech provider, so a lot of development was done with some external companies. We didn’t have enough manpower or know-how in this area of software development.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us create an HTML prototype with backend functionality to showcase the final product and features. We needed a proof of concept we could show potential clients to showcase that the product we were developing was solid and user-friendly.

What is the team composition?

I work with a team of four people.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

Andersen was already working on other projects for my company, so it was natural to bring them on for this project as well.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2019 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work is above average. The quality of their work is excellent. They’re very professional, well organized, and a pleasure to work with.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

On a scale of 1–10, I’d have to give them a ten. They’re outstanding.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The whole process has been fantastic, from planning sprints, identifying next steps,to our daily interactions, they’re wonderful. They are free to approach me, if they get stuck, they call me. They’re very pragmatic and well thought-through.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything negative to say about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would highly recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as a Scrum Master in a tech startup that produces mobile apps and SaaS services for the hospitality industry and restaurants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

We hired Andersen to aid us in developing mobile apps running on our SaaS backend.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals were to get a working service up and running quickly, we had a clear concept and a semi-working backend that we chose to develop in-house.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our company's CTO was familiar with Andersen from his previous jobs. Other companies were considered but Andersen was chosen based on knowledge of their skill sets.

Describe the project in detail.

We had produced wireframes and a backend API for the app, requirements were not well documented and a lot of work and planning was done ad-hoc. This was not a problem as Andersen provided very skilled and independent react-native developers for the Android and iOS versions of the app. Documentation has been provided simultaneously to the app development.

What was the team composition?

Initially the team consisted of one project manager and three react native developers. For this and concurrent projects the team has grown to seven people including more react native developers, one Business Analysts and QA personnel.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don't have any metrics yet but are very happy with the work. Nigh-on impossible deadlines and a lot of ad-hoc requirements have all been taken care of swiftly. Our company is growing quickly and we have initiated several similar projects running in parallel, even this has been a smooth process.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow has been effective and Andersen have proactively suggested improvements in many of our work processes to aid us. We use Scrum/Scrumban methodology and Atlassian JIRA as our main tool. Language has not been a problem, communications are handled in English.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I'm most impressed by their skill to quickly get on board with new projects and requirements. If we need a new resource, Andersen are able to find the right person for us very quickly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There were some frequent personnel changes at the start of the project but luckily this did not cause major problems.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of IT at Elanders GmbH, a printing and logistics company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

In Germany, it’s hard to find proper developers in web-based development. We were looking into nearshoring or offshoring our development resources

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They offer us web development support.

What is the team composition?

There are two full-time developers.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

We found them in a Google search. We looked at a few companies, but Andersen was overwhelming in how they presented themselves and how good they were in development.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €90,000-100,000 (approximately $100,000–$112,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quantity of the work is really great. The people are very well educated and perform really well.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via Slack and Skype. Most of the communication with the developers is in English but we’re very happy that our main contact there also speaks perfect German.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The developers were fully integrated with our development team within a few days. They didn’t need to be told what to do explicitly. They use their own brains and are interested in creating really great solutions for us.

They’re not only workers for us but they’re real team members. They share their ideas with us and are eager to develop the best solution. They’re really a great addition to our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re totally satisfied with them. We’re thinking about hiring 2–3 more people but it’s currently on hold because of COVID-19.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It was all so well organized. We also flew them into Germany for a kickoff event for one week. The best advice would be to listen to them. They do everything for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Quality Management for a process automation software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We needed development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide the main part of development as well as quality management and involvement in product management.

What is the team composition?

There are 12 people.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

They distributed a movie and wrote an email to my supervisor. We were impressed with the movie. They spoke very good German and were very promising.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their quality is high-level. They do reviews themselves. I’m very satisfied. The quality of the developers is dependent on the input that we have here. From time to time, the input isn’t ideal and then they have to ask more questions. As soon as they ask, they deliver high quality.

They have a very good ability to adapt to the processes of our company. They’re very good at improving processes. They helped us a lot with the basics here.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

They come up with ideas on how we can work better together in Jira. We were suffering a little bit low on project management. They’re getting better. As we give them new requirements all the time, they couldn’t keep the original estimated target dates. We use a Scrum framework and it’s becoming better. The estimations are rather good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They improved the quality of the product and added new features to the product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the programmers’ English could be better. In the beginning, we had only a few programmers whose English was a little poor, but training helped improve that. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The better you prepare the project, the better they can take part, anticipate, and implement the product you have. Be very prepared with having very good specifications available. The development is rather quick and able to understand. Treat the team as your own team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the development manager at eurofunk Kappacher, an emergency dispatch center.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We needed remote development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andersen provides development support. They augment our team with remote developers. We have local developers in all the teams, as well as product owners and scrum masters. Requirement management and project management are done on our side.

What is the team composition?

We have a team of seven individuals spread out over three teams. Most of them are software developers. We also have one DevOps engineer.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

My predecessors found them through an online search. Andersen had a very good availability of talent, and they were very cooperative. We also found the whole process of negotiating the legal framework worked very well for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent 300,000 € (approximately $329,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Andersen is very active in supporting us. They’re constantly in touch and checking if everything is going alright. With the COVID-19 situation, when we switched to more comprehensive teleworking overall, they doubled their effort. 

There’s been a very good response to the situation on their part. We had some technical issues and the team made some adjustments to their data centers, which worked out quite well. We managed to get their IT teammates and ours to work together to eliminate whatever network problems we had.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in an agile framework, so we have daily standup meetings. The teams manage themselves to a large extent. Andersen’s account manager is always around, and so is the office manager for the developers.

It’s a flawless process. The management communication is mostly done via email, which is convenient because I have lots of meetings. We also have video call tools set up with the developers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Andersen continues to have readily available talent, which is important because we’re a growing company and we’re scaling up. They work with our requirements and qualification profiles.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re doing team augmentation with them which means we carry the risk associated with managing the teams. The tools, the process coaches, and the product design is ours. We’ve had some discussions surrounding how long we can take to decide who we want to hire and how long it takes for that whole process.

From initial selection, the confirmation that the candidate is someone we want to work with is about two weeks. We take about two weeks to create the administrative stuff and build them up in ERP and IT until we have the remote desktop machine and everything set up. 

These four weeks have sort of been a point of contention and have led to a bit of pressure occasionally. However, it’s not a big issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work out details and high-quality qualification profiles. Andersen seems to have the talent to match the requests quite well.