Arcanys

Please describe your company and your position there.

International Content Director / National Networks Manager with Office Media market leader Executive Channel Network, who have digital signage networks and operations in Sydney, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam

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

Atleast 5 different management applications were designed and developed by Arcanys to provide the necessary capabilities required to aggregate, segment and distributes live data from a diverse range of media suppliers including news, weather, financial hubs and social media APIs.

Additionally, a further 50+ intelligent content applications have been designed and developed for daily operation across 5 markets.

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

Following a review process of several vendors combined with a recommendation from an industry colleague, Arcanys was shortlisted based on breadth of technical capabilities, sensible costings, and a fiercely positive approach to innovation.

Knowing that a successful project partnership would lead to an ongoing relationship of development we were very fortunate to find a tech partner who was thoroughly trust worthy and shared common values.

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

ECN's ambitious dev schedule for product development required expertise across multiple technologies including;

• .NET
• HTML5
• JS
• SQL
• PHP and more.

Our projects were largely understood from legacy systems and processes which had been brought together piecemeal over many years but needed to undergo fresh development.

Our Arcanys team implemented our refined workflows and automated processing requirements which has alleviated the need for strong technically minded resources to manage daily operations, instead offering capabilities that can be easily controlled and configured by largely non-technical resources.

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

2 x HTML5/JS Developers ( Senior and Mid level), 1xPHP/Symphony (Mid level) , 1x .NET/SQL (Senior)

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

ECN's Source Content Aggregation and delivery is expected to run without interruption (24/7 365 days a year) across 5 international networks, 600+ unique asset locations, combining data from more than 30+ API suppliers, on a daily basis and even more during advertising campaigns which utilise dynamic triggers for a customised audience experience.

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

ECN Project manages all aspects of product development with Arcanys team members in the same style as would be used with our own local resources. Additional inputs on occasion from Arcanys Scrum masters / Team leads proves helpful where meeting schedules are sometimes interrupted.

JIRA is used extensively for allocation of Tasks, Planning and Timesheeting and has been a brilliantly simple and clear layer of transparency ongoing.

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

No pun intended, but Arcanys' unique ability to be a Swiss army knife of services reduces the need to engage multiple suppliers, which saves time, simplifies project spend, reduces communication burdens and improves our agility when kicking off new initiatives.

But perhaps of even greater value is their 'can-do' attitude and relentlessly positive view of the work.

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

There are always areas for improvement in our business and processes. Arcanys as a partner join us in that responsibility and noticeably are proactive in improving communication, transparency and technical expertise. This has been a key differentiator in their style over other suppliers.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Register Now is a SAAS company providing Event Registrations for mass participation based events in the Australiasia region. I am the owner of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Arcanys?

Arcanys was initially hired to supplement our internal development team.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were twofold - to attempt to build our team in a cost-effective manner with talented people, and to gain access to other technical resources on an as-needed basis.

How did you select this vendor?

We developed an initial 'test' project that we sent to a number of potential providers that we had shortlisted. We agreed on payment and time frames with 4 providers to complete the project. Not only did the Arcanys team take the time to understand the brief, but they completed it ahead of schedule and provided shippable code that we were able to implement into our platform immediately.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project is an ongoing one where the technical resources Arcanys provides are working on our core platform offering. We build in dot net have had very high information security and PCI compliance processes which the team has been able to work comfortably within.

What was the team composition?

We have a number of developers, architects, BA and QA's at Arcanys working with us on an ongoing basis. The team works closely with the product team in based in Australia on a daily basis. After some good successes with Arcanys, we have gradually increased our team size with Arcanys and are likely to continue to do so.

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

Register Now was struggling to find talent at a reasonable rate. We have managed to do that with Arcanys. This has allowed us to concentrate local resources on building the business and growing our customer base which we are doing faster than ever.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We use Azure DevOps to manage our backlog and releases. Our communication is constant and we utilize Slack for internal chat and Google Hangouts daily standups and video calls as required. We find the brief daily stand up at the start of the day to be a very effective way of keeping the team on track.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We have had no turnover with the team we have been building with Arcanys over three years. This is a testament to the management team's efforts to provide an extremely positive workplace for the employees. The Arcanys employees are some of the happiest that I've experienced.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We constantly review our processes with our team at Arcanys and have found the team very responsive to this process. Time zones can prove an issue occasionally, especially during daylight savings, however, on request the team have been willing to adjust accordingly.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the CTO at Reorg, a financial media, data, and technology company. We have an editorial team that writes about complex topics within the legal and finance world. We also have a technology platform that houses the content that are editorial team writes and several database and workflow tools that our clients use. We offer a variety of products that cover a wide range of needs, including distress debt, bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, pharmaceutical patent litigation, and other complex topics that investors, lawyers, and financial institutions would be interested in.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

We have an in-house development team that’s part of a larger technology team. We’ve also had an outsourced team in Ukraine since the inception of the company. We were looking to add another set of developers to broaden the kinds of projects that we could work on. Also, from a geographic perspective, we wanted to give ourselves a footprint in Asia to have somewhat of a 24-hour operation going.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We treat our three developers from Arcanys as an extension of our in-house team. We don’t siphon them off to certain projects, and there’s no middle person that manages communication between our outsourced developers and our in-house team. Our in-house team gives them a variety of tasks, from small bug fixes to large, multi-month projects.

Most of their work has been done in PHP using the Laravel framework. They also use MySQL for work on our primary database and MongoDB for larger data sets. They’ve helped with implementing ElasticSearch on our frontend search function, as well as development in Vue.js for the frontend framework.

What is the team composition?

The team is composed of three full-time developers. We have a person here who directly manages those three developers.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

I did a pretty extensive search and worked with a firm that matches companies with outsourced developers. I was introduced to several different firms and did interviews with the people that I'd be working with at those firms. I happened to find Arcanys outside of that.

I was looking at and doing interviews with a bunch of different firms, and Arcanys was the one that stood out the most. I gave each potential developer a test, and Arcanys scored better than everyone else. Also, from a communication perspective, they were really good. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them during July 2017, and the relationship is currently ongoing.

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

I don’t have any quantitative evidence, but we’re in the process of releasing a large project that they’ve been working on. It’s an internal workflow tool that they built for us. So far, the launch has been going very well, and I consider that a testament to the great work that they put into the project.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

The person on our team who manages their developers is a developer himself, so communication tends to be very good. They’re much more responsive than other outsourced teams that I’ve worked with, and that helps quite a bit. The time zone difference is challenging, especially for the person on our team who manages them, but they have regular calls and use Slack to stay up to date.

Usually, the developers will send a nightly update describing what they did during the day. That way, we know exactly what they did for us each day. Most of this communication happens over Slack, which has worked very well for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed by their ability to learn new technology on the fly. From what I know, Arcanys is a great place to work, and it seems like they heavily invest in their employees. This shows in the work product that they provide.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think so. Their work is generally very, very good. The toughest part is probably the time zone, but I'm not sure that there's any viable solution there. We’re figuring out ways to make that work as much as possible. But I'd say, for the most part, they’re excellent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, I don’t think I do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Tiqque, a consulting company. Application development is our core business.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

My company works in a software development paradigm called serverless, and it’s challenging to find developers within this paradigm. We needed help with serverless AWS development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Arcanys provides different kinds of software development. Our clients connect us with a product owner and a business problem, and we engage the Arcanys development team. They interact directly with the client. Right now, my company has a big client in the logistics industry, which means Arcanys is developing different logistics systems. Everything they develop is cloud-based.

What is the team composition?

Currently, we employ sixteen Arcanys developers. We assign developers based on client needs and project requirements.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

I found Arcanys through a previous employer. We needed a team that was certified in AWS and could fulfill our specifications.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent around $200,000-$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement commenced in June 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

It’s very important that my company can grow quickly, and Arcanys has made doing so much easier. They provide highly qualified developers for us to work with. For instance, the first developer we worked with from Arcanys had experience with one of our client’s cultures, which benefitted their interactions. Carrying on the project without this developer would’ve been very difficult.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is good, and their standards are high. Sometimes, we have to push them to communicate with our clients. If they don’t engage with the client, our partnership with them won’t work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their company culture and ability to maintain a long-term partnership is critical. We’ve worked with them for a couple of years in different contexts, and it’s always worked out great. Also, they retain key resources for long periods of time, which prevents turnover on our end.

Arcanys’s developers are independent and don’t require constant guidance and direction. Their team has a drive that can push any project forward.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more active in increasing their technical expertise and communication skills. They’re good, but they can always do better.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a software development team deputy for Citilog. We provide intelligent video monitoring systems for the transportation industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

We engaged Arcanys to provide development support for long-term projects. We need help handling day-to-day issues like customer requests and bug fixing, formalizing procedures, and improving the system’s overall quality.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Arcanys is in charge of developing our embedded systems. We use a C++ and Linux environment. Their team works on various projects including the engine, the communications protocol, a Java UI, and C++ features. 

Arcanys also works on the UI of our desktop products using C# and DevExpress library, in which their team has in-depth knowledge. 
 
What is the team composition?

We first worked with one C# developer, and the team has grown as we’ve increased Arcanys’ involvement. We now collaborate with five people; four work on development tasks while one is dedicated to testing. As my side’s primary point of contact, I also communicate with a manager and the founders.
 
How did you come to work with Arcanys?

My predecessor found their team through our company’s network.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Arcanys around 2011, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

Arcanys works well within our sophisticated software system. Their UIs have received positive user feedback, and we have full confidence in their ability to troubleshoot and fix complex items. They have truly improved our system.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage the project from our side. We communicate every day via Skype and email, and we use a shared test bay and a shared development platform for testing requests. We also visit their office once a year to get to know their team better.

The team overall is highly attentive and flexible. They have remained patient with us as we formalized our system. Every team member—from the developers to the founders—is easy to reach and willing to fix issues as needed. Despite some ambiguities over the years, Arcanys always meets their schedule and alerts us about potential delays.
 
What did you find most impressive about them?

Proactive and diligent, Arcanys acts like a part of our team. They ask questions if they don’t understand something, and they point ways to refactor a request or improve a process if needed. We appreciate their openness; they feel as invested in our success as we are.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We first were worried about evaluating potential resources through remote interviews. However, we’ve developed a recurring process with Arcanys to assess each incoming team member constructively and thoroughly. We’re thrilled with the collaboration overall.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Have a formal onboarding process. Visit their team regularly as well to clear any communication issues.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of NZ Funds, a financial services organization that specializes in investment management, wealth management, and financial advice. Our customer base is private investors, retail investors, and financial advisors. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

We needed a cost-effective way to scale our IT team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Arcanys provides full-time resources who work with our in-house dev team, taking on tasks from within our weekly or monthly sprints. They recently collaborated on a geo-based cloud service for wealth planning and financial advising. Arcanys works in Azure Stack and uses SQL servers to accomplish their work. They also build web-based apps, using tools such as JavaScript, C#, and Entity Framework.

What is the team composition? 

They initially provided three developers, but we went down to two.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

We wanted a cost-effective offshore partner located in the Philippines because they overlapped with our time zone. We did an extensive search, doing email introductions and phone interviews with about six or seven different organizations. We then did an in-person visit in the Philippines to conduct a deep dive into the businesses. We chose Arcanys because of their skill set, web presences, and client references.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $10,000 a month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in December 2017, and the work is ongoing. 

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

Our partnership allows us to move faster and enables our dev team to implement solutions quicker. We’ve become more rapid in our build and release process because of them.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, we’re happy with their level of communication, documentation, and responsiveness. We had to let one developer go because their work wasn’t what we expected, but Arcanys helped make the transition. They’re flexible and allow us to adjust their involvement based on our needs. We mainly communicate via Skype, email, and WhatsApp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Unlike other firms, Arcanys is a genuine tech partner, not just a resource provider. They also have a payment structure that keeps them engaged in our projects instead of locking us into a partnership for a long time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As they grow, they should continue to focus on being a tech partner with advanced skill levels.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and a co-founder of Payment Logic. We’re based in Australia and provide our customers with cash flow benefits from commercial credit cards while earning reward points. We also negotiate early payment discounts.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

We utilise a hybrid software development team with resources based in Australia and the Philippines and we were looking for a technology partner to help our company scale up cost-effectively.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been involved at every stage of development from defining project requirements to final deployment. Our staff build the payment platforms and then their developers help us to build and maintain web apps and cloud hosting infrastructure. Some of that includes overall security and payment card industry data security standard (PCI DSS) compliance. Everything is built using Microsoft technologies like Azure.

What is the team composition?

When we first began, we had two developers. Over time, we increased their team to six full-time staff, including a project manager/business analyst, three senior developers, and two QA engineers. We’re currently in the process of bringing on three more people.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

We were recruiting in Australia and Arcanys responded to our online job advertisement. We’d never hired contractors before, so we met with them to learn more about their business. Their technical capabilities, company culture, quality of staff, and cost structure were impressive, so we decided to hire them for an initial proof of concept project. After seeing the quality of their work, we were sold.

How much have you invested with them?

When we started, our investment was approximately $10,000 per month. We currently pay just under $30,000 per month and have spent around $400,000 in total to date.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since 2016 and the project is ongoing.

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

Deloitte Australia’s Technology Fast 50 recently named us as Australia’s 34th fastest-growing technology company. We’ve averaged 148% growth over the last 3 years. This success has been supported by the agility, skill, and dedication of our Arcanys resources.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

I’d originally had some concerns about managing a team of remote resources, but it’s been much easier than I anticipated. We use Agile/scrum methodologies, so we talk daily via video conference. We strive to have open communication and it’s worked really well despite their team being in another country. To achieve this, we use Azure DevOps for planning, task allocation, and status tracking. It helps to have efficient workflows through our software development platform.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Not only do their staff have great technical skills, but they also possess initiative, excellent problem-solving skills, and great personalities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are some subtle cultural differences between the Philippines and Australia. Occasionally, the team is so eager to please that they jump in and start working before the full project team agrees to a concrete plan. We’ve been working to ensure everyone’s in sync and trying to take the shortest possible path from conception to release.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

As great as our Arcanys resources are, they are like any other valuable resources: they need to be managed and nurtured. I suggest getting to know the team and encouraging two-way communication, which includes listening to what they tell you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Medulla. We’re a technology startup that facilitates manufacturing operations by improving the traceability of products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

While we were able to create a functional model of our software internally, our team doesn’t possess the skills required to take the project further. Therefore, we needed a development partner to build a cloud-based version of the platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Arcanys team are building our factory system from the ground up. It’s an AWS platform that utilizes the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. They use Kubernetes to enable continuous operation integrations that deploy automatically. Considering the previous build required us manually initiate procedures, I’d say they’ve improved the platform significantly. Now that the core functionalities are up and running, they’ve allocated several designers to implement an intuitive UI/UX.

What is the team composition?

They assigned us a project manager, two backend developers, a UX designer, and a QA resource.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

We previously worked with development firm based in India, but we weren’t happy with their ability to manage the time zone difference. That experience made look for a vendor closer to home. I connected with the co-founder of Arcanys through a network of professionals.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost fluctuates as the project evolves, but we generally spend around $10,000–$12,000 each month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We hired them in September 2018 and the work is ongoing.

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

I haven’t found any functional problems with the builds they’ve developed thus far. Their QA tester has mentioned a few bugs, but none that require immediate action.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

We run development sprints every two weeks, and their project manager ensures that everything goes smoothly. After I walk them through the sprint requirements, the manager creates a task list for each developer to follow. There’s a lot of work involved in that process, but they hit each benchmark as scheduled. Despite a small language barrier, communicating with them is fairly easy.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their developers demonstrate a level of foresight that’s rare among outsourcing firms. Most vendors will build what’s asked of them, but won’t think outside of the project’s scope to solve problems. Arcanys looks at each project holistically and will recommend solutions before potential issues occur. By always looking ahead, they ensure that each new element can seamlessly integrate with the other modules in our roadmap. That ability is incredibly valuable to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

An initial lack of communication resulted in us getting billed for hours without knowing what was being done. Once we communicated the issue, they addressed it quickly. We’ve been receiving frequent updates ever since.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Utilizing their project manager allows us to keep track of the engagement without having to allocate a dedicated resource.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Manta Ray Consulting, a consulting group that primarily provides support for large projects relating to building and upgrading particle accelerators. Our customers are Department of Energy laboratories in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and other locations throughout the country.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

As part of our consulting work, I wrote a project management application that we utilize in the facilities we work in. A group based in Bangalore, India built the application, but they grew to busy to manage it and give me the attention I needed. Arcanys took over the application’s maintenance and development 4–5 years ago. It’s been a fruitful collaboration.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, they took over maintenance of the application developed by the Bangalore team. They learned a great deal regarding what the original design and development team did. I then gave them the green light to improve the application. They studied the front- and backend in-depth and provided recommendations to improve the app’s UI and backend performance. Afterward, they were responsible for keeping up with maintenance and adding enhancements customers requested.

As of August 2018, they’ve started to develop the second version of the application. To save money, they’re using the existing backend structure (an SQL database and .NET platform) and making mostly cosmetic changes. I’ve worked with two developers to evaluate the app’s current design and revamp it to be stylized and sexy.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a project manager in the early stages, who introduced me to the lead developer. I’m also a project manager, so I began working directly with the lead developer. She’s a brilliant woman, who, in my mind, is a miracle-worker.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

I looked at reviews online and narrowed the choice to 2–3 companies. After interviewing the people in charge and the developers we’d be working with about their experience, it came down to Arcanys and another firm based in the Philippines. Arcanys’ younger staff won us over because they were in tune with current thinking regarding app development. Though both firms had similar development skills, we liked Arcanys’ modern appearance.

How much have you invested with them?

My average expenditure with them in the early stages was about $3,500 per month. It’s tripled since then because we brought on a design and development team. In total, I’ve spent between $100,000–$200,000 with Arcanys.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the most recent iteration in January 2017, but I believe the overall collaboration began 4–5 years ago.

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

An independent cost review of our work at a facility in Berkeley, California used the app to prepare and develop their plan. Two weeks prior, we gave community members access to the tool so that they could evaluate it. They were so impressed they recommended to the Department of Energy that all projects use the app going forward. Their recommendation made it all the way to Washington, which is quite an endorsement and success story for us.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve developed a tight-knit relationship with my team of developers at Arcanys, so the communication is wide-open. Because they’re in the Philippines, we talk over Skype. We also use Jira to upload stories and discuss technical issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have really talented developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re 13 hours ahead of us, so I would change their time zone. I have to work late but that's just the way it is. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to understand the cultural differences that exist between your and your provider’s locations. Empower them to speak their minds and alert you if you’re leading them down the wrong path. I told our developers this first thing, and we've been fine.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Deskvault, a software company that offers consumers a secure, cloud-based virtual desktop solution.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arcanys?

We needed help building an MVP of our B2B web-based platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our platform from scratch using Node.js and AWS Lambda. They did some frontend work with AngularJS. In addition, they also helped me with UX and UI design.

What is the team composition?

We have a backend and frontend developer, who I interface with directly, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Arcanys?

I found them online. They were friendly and demonstrated a good understanding of what I wanted. I liked their culture, approach, and their style.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $20,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2018 and the work is ongoing.

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

They’ve done a good job, and I’m impressed with the results so far.

How did Arcanys perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re happy with their level of responsiveness. We use Jira to manage the sprints, and for communication, we mainly use Skype, Slack, and some email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their approach makes them stand out. They take the time to understand their clients and what they are trying to achieve. They invest time in making the relationship work. They try to integrate their developers into your team and make sure that they are fitting in and that everyone is working well together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as involved and as technical as you can and get into as much detail as possible. You can’t just give them a brief; you need to actually be involved. If possible, fly there and spend time with them face-to-face to immerse yourself and fully understand how they operate and communicate what you are trying to do together.