Andersen Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Team Lead in one of the leading mobile devgame companies. I am leading the R&D team that supports two games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

Our R&D team is supporting several games on mobile and social platforms. We faced the lack of free hands to properly handle the situation with maintenance and feature development. Especially, we identified the need in extra QA and back-end resources.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to get the gap in QA capacity closed so that QA engineers could test all what the developers provide. Plus, there was a need in a specific back-end skillset that we could not find on the market. So the impact anticipated was that our games' support would be fully operational.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

we selected from several prospects for each position. The interviews were held by the members of other teams within the company, they confirmed the competencies of the suggested candidates from Andersen.

Describe the project in detail.

I am a direct manager of the whole R&D team and lead the full maintenance and feature development procecss. So we took people from Andersen as regular members of the team, with all respective access, permissions, processes.

What was the team composition?

We took two persons fromo Andersen., So, one is a QA engineer who adds to the already exisiting QA engineer. Another is a back-end developer responsible for maintenance and feature developemnt for one of the game.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All games started being fully covered with the full scope of R&D suppoort. Games are success now, fully opeerational and have plans for further development

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Because we took Andersen people as regular team members, we have shared all the procedures and tools.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I value most the selection of the specialists so that we didn't waste time tring to figure out the proper candidate among the list of names. Each person suggested was really the person professionaly suitable for us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything is fine. Any ptential improvement can be advised only when we could see it. So far, everything is fine

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead of IT and development at a software company in the energy sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We needed development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did front- and backend development work for our web application and platform. They used Angular, Go, and Node.js.

What is the team composition?

Initially, we worked with two developers. Now, we work with five of them.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

I made a tender with selected providers, and Andersen made the best offer.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $197,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In the beginning, we had some problems, but they provided me with new resources. Their work is of good quality, and we have a good relationship with the developers. 

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is very helpful and flexible. They have an experienced management team. Additionally, our cooperation and teamwork with them have been good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our collaboration with them has been good. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, it was challenging to find the right people with the right skills. Management was open to helping us get new resources with the required skills.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Define your skill requirements clearly. Do a trial period so that you can see if it all matches your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Xpence Ltd.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We started a new version of our web application based on a new technology. We were searching for someone who has experience in Flutter.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We ordered a pilot project from them. The project took about three months and now we’re finalizing it. The first project was based on a fixed price. After this, we took another month to add some features. As a pilot, it had no documentation from our side.

What is the team composition?

There are developers, a scrum master, and QA person.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

After interviewing developers from the company, it became clear that they really knew what to do. We tried to cooperate with them on another project before this, but their estimation was too expensive for us as a startup. We hired someone else, but when we required another tool, the offer from Andersen was more suitable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about €30,000 (approximately $30,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020 and the work is ongoing. We’ve suspended it for a time due to COVID-19 but plan to start up again in the summer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very happy with the cooperation. They gave me the right balance between the developers and the QA people. I’m happy to continue with them. They explained a lot of things and why it’s better to do it certain ways.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

They work in a scrum methodology. They were good with scheduling and meeting deadlines. One time they understood they were going slightly out of scope and arranged additional developers to outline the timeline. It was done without any questions from us. The project was put back on time. Their work was done really professionally.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They finished their work on time and the quality was good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the resources would change in the project. The QA person was replaced and during the middle of the project, their scrum master took another position. I think they could have found resources who could be on the project the entire time. On the other hand, the team was very small. It wasn’t a big problem to manage the directors because they were quite advanced and it wasn’t necessary to micromanage them. There was a gap in their work but it had no impact.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re flexible with all the agreements. Don’t tell them that you won’t cooperate with them on the first impression or the price. It’s possible to find an agreement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Vertex is a company positioned in the heart of Lithuania - Vilnius. Here at Vertex we are working on a lot of different projects and are always looking for new ideas. My role in this company is project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

Currently we are working on a new app called Sendato which will help Shopify users to send marketing SMS and MMS to their clients worldwide. we hired Andersen to help us with development process.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to create an app for Shopify users so that they could reach their clients via text messages about their new items in stock, collect reviews and boost their revenue.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have found Andersen just by searching for developers. There where a lot of other companies/people we have considered, but we chose Andersen because they provided great developers for a good price.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Sendato is an app for Shopify which allows users to send text messages to their clients. Andersen provides development services to us.

What was the team composition?

We are working with 2 senior developers which are helping with creating our app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our task creation and closing rate has spiked and the progress has sped up around 3 times.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

All of our tasks are being managed via GitLab. Communications are being handled by Skype. As well as that, Andersen provides monthly reports including all of the metrics and analysis.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The monthly reports are in-depth and provide a clear understanding from the developers side, which we appreciate.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything was quite great, but it would've been better if developers would have created their own issues from the main tasks. It would've given our developer some more time for his own work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Company works in payday loans industry, I am serving as Chief Technology officer there.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

Andersen was hired in order to assist with development and support of company's core product - lending ERPP platfform & website for customers.

What were your goals for this project?

To achieve stable and fast feature development, quality control and technical improvements.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Vendor was selected based on feedback for peers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Andersen covered part of development, testing and support cycle, along with in-house IT team

What was the team composition?

Team consisted around 10 people, developers, QA testers and business analysts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Business requirements & goals were achieved according to development timeline, quality surpassed the expectations.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was done by our in-house team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team excelled at working in stressful conditions and meeting deadlines.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Probably communication.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CIO of Kassir.ru, the largest ticket operator in Eastern Europe, which cooperates with promotion companies in Russia and the world, and is also the official ticket operator for events of a federal scale.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

We attracted Andersen developers to develop new functionality and support the back part of the site

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We needed a reliable partner, ready to provide the high level of data security needed in modern realities. After a series of checks, we made sure that we can trust Andersen.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Andersen employees worked on the development of the backend part of the Kassir.ru website. Work was carried out to support the existing functionality, as well as to develop new functionality that allows the company to attract more customers and increase its sales.

What was the team composition?

2 employees (back-end developer) of Andersen company became part of the Kassir.ru team + support and management of a part of the team from Andersen - 1PM.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The functionality introduced in the process of cooperation made it possible to increase the stability of the work and website conversion, which ultimately increased sales.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Andersen's specialists adhere to the project schedule and priorities, they are always available to resolve issues of any complexity and are ready to respond to any changes. 

Work on the project was carried out according to a flexible methodology, which made it possible to quickly make adjustments taking into account priority, and the reporting provided by Andersen provided transparency of cooperation.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Andersen provides a high level of service and offers effective solutions for the development of our business.

Are there any areas for improvement?

At the moment, we are satisfied with the quality of the services provided by Andersen. We are ready to cooperate in the future on our new projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We create cyustom B2B SaaS products and licence them to our customer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

Senior frontend and backend developers as well as designer

What were your goals for this project?

Create and update our large scale Saas service.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our colleague recommended Anderslab as company and also specific developers there.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Senior frontend developers Senior backend developers Designer

What was the team composition?

Team size has varied from 5-10 developers. Consting FE,BE and designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

This project was very important to us and its making it happen was critical to our business.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was done by us (in-house)

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Very good communication They are flexible, friendly, and professional developers.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing comes to my mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We produce learning material and software for digital learning in a specific niche. I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

In our country, qualified software development resources are short. We needed qualified and reliable resources in order to meet our goals.

What were your goals for this project?

Continuous software development based on specifications by our product management and product design team.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Professional key account- and project managers, good value for money and most importantly absolutely reliable!

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

continuous software development for multiple features in an ERP system, online booking solution as well as digital learning platform.

What was the team composition?

Team team changed over time, depending on the needs. We very much appreciated the flexibility in staffing qualified resources to the project. The project manager never changed, which was very important to us. There were 3-4 people on our side, and 3-4 people on Andersens side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project is still going on, but thanks to Andersen's resources we can react quickly to customer needs and recommendations, which helps us to win clients and keep them satisfied.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was very professional and reliable.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Reliable and "tangible". We very much appreciated having a reliable partner, who delivers on time and has open communication.

Are there any areas for improvement?

improve English language skills of some developers.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The TUI Group is the largest leisure, travel and tourism company in the world. I am Technical Lead in the Digital Sales Platforms department of the German subsidiary “TUI Deutschland”.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen?

We hired an Andersen team to develop several Microfrontends, administration tools and middleware services for our sales platform.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to hire a reliable near-shore team to take over peripheral tasks, allowing the internal teams to focus more on the core functionality of the platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Besides cost, our main requirements were:

1. We wanted a vendor who would be able to staff skilled developers in different technologies on short notice.
2. They were expected to integrate with our highly agile workflow.
3. We prefered near-shoring to reduce timezone-offsets.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We started the cooperation with the development of one internal service and a small team. As our general way of work is agile, we had only a “lightweight” kick-off, and then had the team work on user stories from our backlog, moderated by our own Product Owner. With time, we gave the team additional products to develop, using the same mode of collaboration.

What was the team composition?

Over the entire time of the engagement, we had two to five developers on the team, depending on the requirements at a given time. On top of that, without additional cost, Andersen provided a project manager as well as several supporters in the background for QA and documentation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

As we outsourced several peripheral projects to Andersen, we could put a lot more focus on the core platform functionality. This resulted in more speed, faster delivery and more features. This may not sound impressive, but to our customers (and our top management) it was significant.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was one of the greatest experiences with Andersen, on several levels. First, they assigned a highly-skilled PM to the project who was able to understand business requirements, manage the team and drive the implementation.

But what was even greater: As we iteratively established a highly agile way of work, the PM stepped back from an active, „push-style“ management into a more lateral role where she acted rather as team manager and Agile Coach. She even took a Scrum Master training and was able to fill exactly the role which we want to see in such a setup. We also appreciate that this transition was backed by the Andersen management.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

There are several aspects make Andersen the right choice in hindsight. The project managment and communication, in general, were outstanding. PM and devs were always very responsive, we knew what everyone was working on and how their progress was.

At the same time, the Andersen team worked in a very self-reliant way, and we knew that our products were in good hands. Another thing which I personally find astonishing is that Andersen has code reviewers and testers in the background, and writes a lot of documentation, without additional cost.

Are there any areas for improvement?

In general, we are very satisfied with Andersen, and we would definitely hire them again in the future. Of course, we all had to learn a few things over the course of our collaboration.

Luckily, all parties were open for that. Maybe Andersen could train their developers a bit more in things like agile practice, communication skills, solution-oriented thinking etc. … this would allow agile projects to benefit from these skills from the beginning.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Alchemia. We provide tools to help manage booking data to the travel industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We needed developers to help us link to a global distribution system (GDS) that manages airfares, bookings, etc.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andersen is working to integrate our platform into the GDS system using Java.

What is the team composition?

There was mainly one developer, but for the past few months, there have been two.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

Our IT manager had contacted the team previously and put me in touch with them for this project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in October 2019, and our engagement ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m impressed by the fact that the developers are not only smart but also professional. They are technically able to do the job. The team is always able to deliver, which has to do with the culture of Andersen as a company.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

They are goal-driven and deliver quality work on time. It was easy to incorporate them into our project management because they’re predictable. We communicate via Skype, and we also use Bitbucket to discuss code.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a support structure to help you find your strengths and provide additional input and assistance. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re only using their developers, make sure the other aspects, such as DevOps and analysis, are professional. They need to match so you get the most out of your investment.