Ateliware

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of an auction marketplace platform active in Belgium and the Netherlands

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

Our marketing team was facing an insurmountable amount of manual work in order to market the hundreds of items we have on auction every week both through Email Marketing and Facebook Ads. 1 full-time employee was spending all of their time copy/pasting information from our platform into our Email Platform (Mailchimp) and Facebook Ad Manager in order to execute on our marketing strategy.

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

We were looking for a long-term partnership with a software house that believes in the same values we do - honesty, agility, and learning fast rather than creating lots of software. Being Brazilian and needing to keep costs at bay, I had my mind set on working with a Brazil-based partner for our internal tools, while our local development team works further on the core of our platform. Despite the timezone difference (5 hours behind CET), I felt the quality of the developers we could get in Brazil was on par with other nearshoring countries like Portugal or Poland while keeping the costs lower and with a culture of getting things moving and the ball rolling as soon as possible.

After a stumble with a previous partner in the country, with whom we collaborated in Team Augmentation mode, we decided to shift to a project-based model where a whole application would be managed by a team from Ateliware. Besides having previous experience with the team - 2 of the co-founders are ex-colleagues from over 15 years ago - the values and work methodology of ateliware, rooted in Lean thinking and Agility, coupled with their competitive pricing, were key factors in making our choice.

What really sealed the deal for us was Ateliware's experience in building products of their own and together with customers, like Minestore, Pipefy bcredi, and others, that gave us the confidence that they would be able to operate autonomously enough to increase our bandwidth rather than overload our internal development team asking for guidance.

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

We worked together in scoping, designing and building a tool to automate the generation of Email Marketing newsletters and Facebook Ads based on the ongoing auctions on our platform. We had a discovery workshop with Ateliware, applying concepts from Design Thinking and Design Sprint in a pragmatic fashion, while brainstorming together in a digital meeting room with InDesign. Our facilitator did a great job, but it did take Ateliware's team longer than we would have hoped to fully grasp what it is that we wanted to build. The design phase was tough, as our business was complex for the team to understand.

The way we wanted to approach the automation - with plenty of human control and flexibility - was hard to get right. After 1.5 months of design work on paper and later in Figma, we managed to lock down the designs for the complete application and proceeded to determine what was to be included in the MVP, something that Ateliware did expertly well and guided us through very nicely, thanks to their product-centric DNA. In parallel with the design work, the development team had already begun setting up the project with Ruby on Rails and React, as per our requirements, and to create the first integration with our core platform in order to get our product catalog data.

Development started a bit rocky until we found the right developers on their side for this product, but once the team was stabilized, it is a well-oiled machine that keeps on delivering. While the initial MVP automating emails took them 3 months to complete, adding on Facebook Ads on top of that was a 3-week process, a true testament to the strength of the architecture the team came up with together with me acting as Enterprise Architect The speed upon which they have been able to address issues as we faced them was surprising, and no challenge was too hard for Ateliware.

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

We started out with 1 UXer, 1 Designer, 1 Tech Lead and 2 Developers, but later opted to drop the UXer and the Designer, supplanting them with our own internal design team, and retained only the development team.

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

We managed to launch the project in April, freeing up a 0.5 FTE immediately after launch, and eliminating manual errors on the Email Marketing communication to virtually zero. While the delivery was not without issues, Ateliware rose up to the challenge and went above and beyond to make sure the issues were resolved as fast as possible. We are now working towards the launch of the Facebook Ad automation, and after that is launched, the full 1 FTE reduction will be accomplished, freeing our marketeers to do more strategic tasks like A/B testing and trying out new channels, whereas before they would be completely swamped by manual work.

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

Their reporting is great and very extensive, even though most of the time we spent too much time looking at the reports instead of scheduling next steps, especially at the beginning of the project. They will give you an estimation each week of when the current backlog will be completed, which was spot on in our case, and remained stable throughout the project. There is no project manager attached to the team, the Tech Lead also doubles as a project manager with support from their Customer Success team, which in our case didn't really add much value. That said, daily meetings and weekly planning sessions were done from day one, and the lightweight Kanban-based process Ateliware brought in was perfect for this project.

We used Basecamp to communicate with them, and Pipefy to manage the tasks and backlog, which is not what our internal stakeholders were used to and caused some friction. Code was kept in repositories inside our GitHub organization, and designs were kept in Figma.

After the delivery of the MVP we switched to using the same tooling as our internal team - Slack and JIRA - and we feel this was a better match for our organization. While Pipefy is a great product, and Basecamp can centralize more than just chats, we feel the level of integration we can achieve with our tooling far outweighs the disadvantages.

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

The speed upon which issues have been picked up and resolved was amazing. The developers could "fill in the gaps" in our user stories and managed to hit the mark 90% of the time of what we had envisioned and for the 10% of the time they didn't, they were really quick on their feet to adapt. We managed to work together as a team, following our own internal code standards and practices, which their developers adopted as their own during the project without major problems. Their team often offered creative ways of solving issues in an easier way than what we had initially thought and felt like a true part of our company.

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

Project Management is definitely not their strong suit. They were off to a slow start and we wanted to hit the ground running, and misalignment of expectations there cost us precious time. Had we asked them to use our own tooling from the beginning, and had we taken project management earlier on our own hands, we could've spared both parties from some misalignments and mishaps. While Ateliware is very strong technically, and they are fiercely independent in their work, communication and alignment are not their strong suit, especially with the "big picture stuff". They failed to communicate a clear timeline of activities at our kick-off meeting, which led to haphazard scheduling of meetings and partial availability of our key stakeholders for the initial discovery and design phases of the project. Day-to-day communication is great with the dev team though, and we were very much aligned once the project built enough momentum.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Financial Administrative manager.

For what projects/services did your company hire ateliware?

We had two systems, a factory and an administrative system and we would like to find a solution on the market that integrates the two systems or that could improve the visibility of the projects within the company.

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

It was a recommendation we got after we were unsuccessful with a former supplier.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We use ERP in the administrative part that was already ripe for use. In the manufacturing part it was very important to have ateliware as a partner, they entered a know-how for the solutions for the manufacturing part with the minimum possible customization which we would need from the dynamics part to develop what we wanted. Manoel (CEO) helped us a lot when it came to making a quick and efficient adjustment. Without touching the core of the product.

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

We got to have 10 professionals simultaneously in the project as well as the involvement of the partners in the project

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

The binding and consistency of information has changed levels. With the integration we have more efficient data: production, stocks, planning and time mainly.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very good, we had to intervene little throughout the project. They planned and executed the project really well.

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

Ability to understand our needs, to seek ERP solutions in an appropriate way. Implement all of this and deliver all the results we were looking for. It was all very good that we achieved all the goals we wanted from the point of view of information. And what we wanted was not so easy to achieve.

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

We had the involvement of the partners in the project and the challenge is to attract a level of professionals who can maintain the high level constant during the project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

At Skeat, I worked with strategic planning, investor relations and stakeholder/development monitoring.

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

Our goal was to develop an ordering and scheduling platform for restaurants and bars that was focused on a specific consumer niche.

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

We received a recommendation that they were excellent at developing digital products and decided to trust their business and technology skills to be our technology partner.

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

Ateliware was responsible for 100% of the technical project, design, assistance and support in the business and technology strategy as a whole.

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

In all, we had the direct participation of 1 person from customer experience who helped us during product development, 1 person from design and 2 from development. Of course, we also had the involvement of some of ateliware's C-levels in the development of the product.

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

We had no one with a technical and development background on our team and ateliware helped us find a solution to the ideas we had within the company.

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

Very good, ateliware helped us and taught us how to work with project management tools even within our processes at Skeat. They insisted on using platforms to guarantee a fluid communication so that we could develop our product quickly. The project as a whole was very agile. There was no period in time in which it seemed that we were aimless, because we always had a goal to be fulfilled and something to deliver.

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

The culture of being able to make mistakes and test. To talk during weeklies and dailies and also the integration of the team that works like a symphony.

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

I believe there is nothing. The project turned out really well.

Please describe your company and your position there.

All costs and parameterization, calculation and costing performance. All accounts: payable, receipt and treasury supervision and also financial planning.

For what projects/services did your company hire ateliware?

It was more the integration of the production part into an ERP. Previously the production part was in a clip system, and the financial and accounting part were in another system.

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

The idea of integrating the systems came before we got to know ateliware, but the technology company that started to implement our ERP platform failed to meet our expectations. Then we found out that ateliware was a great company in platform integration and that was when we decided to invite ateliware to be part of the project.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The first part had to do with ateliware understanding how our business worked and then we developed a pretty cook customization part in the production site.

How many resources from the ateliware team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I don't quite remember because it was a long time ago.

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

-

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was excellent. It was very well developed, the customization part was very precise in what we needed. It was an excellent project overall.

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

The business model as a whole. The ateliware's experts involved in the project understood the business as well as technology. Their teams know how to code and understand businesses.

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

Well, all the implementation of the project was a success. I wouldn't have a recommendation at this point in time.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Product Management and New Business Consultant

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

Outsourcing the development of a new product within the company, because we did not have this type of internal resource.

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

We had an internal recommendation within the company since ateliware already works with another area here. We were recommended because of the quality of their work and decided to choose them.

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

We started developing a new product within the company from scratch. Ateliware was responsible first the discovery and design process and now we are entering the process of developing the product architecture of this new product.

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

There were 5 in the discovery and another 5 now in the development part

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

We still don't have clear outcomes of the product since we are still in the process of development. In qualitative terms, the perception of our users and the impression we have of the platform is excellent. We did user usability testing and we already had a significant improvement in our user experience.

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

I am very satisfied. The Customer experience team does an excellent job of keeping us updated. In fact, our meeting times are always on time. I am 100% satisfied.

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

I think what impresses me the most is their speed to enter the domain of the product we are talking about. In both the discovery and development, we are talking about a very technical subject, which has many technical terms regarding the market we work with. In a very short period of time, the ateliware team was able to understand all the technical details of the company very quickly.

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

I don't know how to answer it yet, for now I'm very satisfied. We will have a developer exchange now on the project and we will see what that exchange will look like.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a consultant for new technologies for companies in the agribusiness sector in Brazil.

For what projects/services did your company hire ateliware?

The company for whom we were providing consultancy was looking to modernize the infrastructure of its administrative systems.

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

I was responsible for the entire ERP provider prospecting process, this process started in 2015 with a diagnostic I did for the company I was consulting for, addressing how its platforms underserved the company. From that, I structured the prospecting and when we were doing some benchmarks with some companies that work in the same sector, we were recommended to look at ateliware. And because we had a great recommendation and because of their expertise, we decided to go for ateliware.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

The project was divided into 3 points: Mapping, ERP implementation and maintenance for the company for whom we were providing consultancy. Ateliware played an important role in learning about the structure and processes and business rules of the company so that it could give the best direction for the solution.

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

In total, we had more than 12 areas of the company involved in the implementation, including managers, directors and the president who was the sponsor of the project. Ateliware had seven direct professionals as well as the support of C-levels in the development of the project.

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

In my view, the great gain of the company was really in the context of management information. The new platform allowed for greater information reliability, with easily auditable information. With this, the biggest benefit is having a more reliable and accurate control of information and the company as a whole. Agility of operation and reliability of information.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The management of the project as a whole was done by me, but the technology strategy part was shared with the ateliware's CEO, Manoel. This co-management was essential for the fulfillment of time and budget and the quality of planning.

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

The ease of relationship. It was very easy to do this project together with the ateliware. Ateliware has always been very flexible with everything that we asked for.

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

This is a difficult question because the answer will always be yes, but if you ask me specifically today, I can't answer that.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was a development supervisor on the IT side. I was the negotiator between our development team and the ateliware team. I worked a lot as a technical leader and did a little bit of everything.

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

The first challenge was a technological overhaul. We, as clients, did not have a very interesting legacy from the technological side. Historically speaking, we executed the projects without a concise structure. After a first project in 2013 with ateliware, we were able tp understand the best paths that we could follow with our technology projects. We have already developed some projects with ateliware since then and we continue to develop until today.

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

Fael has been in the market for 22 years and we are the pioneers of distance education in Brazil. Like every company that enters a new market, we have been building technology products without worrying about the legacy of the technological part. Halfway through the development we found out that we needed to find a new partner that could assist us with our legacy. This is where ateliware comes in.

We couldn't shut down the system, so we decided to look for ateliware to show us the best way to develop small systems to improve the process as a whole. We made, for example, a test system that used to fall and generated chaos during the tests. Today, this system developed by ateliware no longer falls and works perfectly.

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

First, we talked about targeting and what could be done at a consultancy level. Then we became partners in some digital products under development until today.

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

We generally had programmers (depending on the type of project), a customer experience that brought us the development metrics and overall progress of the product, we also had one of the partners involved in the projects, and designers. The correct number of professionals depended a lot on the type of project we worked on together.

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

We made the student portal and there is very clear evidence, just evaluating the design part, for example, that the experience of our students is already different and better.

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

In the beginning, back in 2013, the relationship was not so easy, but as time went on, ateliware has transformed and improved a lot. At the end of the day, we still have ateliware as our supplier, which shows how confident we are by having them as suppliers.

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

Thinking outside the box and looking at innovation, the way ateliware deals with problems is something that has even changed the way I see the world of technology. I had never worked with an ateliware-type company. I can say that we managed to transform in a very positive way FAEL thanks to this partnership.

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

Once in the past I had difficulties with a professional who did not feel the urgency of some projects as I expected. I do not blame the company, as we have already delivered incredible projects together, but perhaps I believe that a more critical assessment of new professionals would be great.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I´m Product Coordinator in Compliance/Auditing Department

For what projects/services did your company hire ateliware?

Our challenge was to create a digital product for risk analysis and corporate fraud

What were your goals for this project?

Create a scalable and multiclient loss prevention solution, with sufficient performance and data processing to meet the analytical demands of an ERP

How did you select ateliware?

Through an indication in consulting and construction of digital products

Describe the project in detail.

The project started with the conception of a multi-client web application, and also with a bigdata architecture to store corporate ERP transactions. We started with the Design Thinking phase, we went through protipation, MVP, up to the roadmap evolution part with a redesign project in UX and UI throughout 2020

What was the team composition?

There were 5 full stack developers, 2 Designers and a Project manager

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

We achieved the objective of creating the digital product and serving customers in production with the proposed solution. The product today stands out for the precision of the analytical capacity, scale and processing capacity of millions of transactional data, and also for the UX and UI in the ease of use

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The co-creation process was a success from the beginning, with both teams and departments engaged in building a technology solution, with requirements in the areas of risk and compliance. The interaction was always close and daily, with weekly and careful monitoring of project indicators.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The technical capacity of developers and Designers, as well as the sense of ownership in co-creating the product was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I believe that just like any other company in the field of technology and development, there is room for evolution in terms of organization and metrics, as well as in the qualities of the tests by the development team.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO at Heijunka360. I'm responsible for conducting the Easy360 development.

For what projects/services did your company hire Ateliware?

For cloud infrastructure assessment.

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

Our client indicated their services!

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We followed a work team project to create the design of our cloud architecture infrastructure. We started with a complex architecture and finished the project with a simple and customized architecture for our product.

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

Five resources from Ateliware worked with us. Their positions involve commercial, CTO, project manager, and software engineering.

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

Creating a simple cloud architecture assists us in reducing the complexity of implementing our product.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective and productive!

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

They are very focused and productive!

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

They could improve the payment flexibility for significant projects, particularly when the project is from a known client.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I previously worked as the RD&I Manager and today I am the company's CTO.

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

We hired ateliware to assist us with some software modernization issues we had.

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

The owner of the company knew one of ateliware's C-levels who connected us with the technology team.

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

We wanted to modernize our software components within the company. Ateliware participated in the project as a whole, from the suggestion of technology, from conception, from validation, from POC to development.

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

I don't quite remember.

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

It is difficult to measure, but in line with some internal strategies, this software modernization has enabled us to significantly increase Akiyama's marketshare.

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

Clear and efficient communication.

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

The issue mainly of agility and knowledge and technological expertise was impressive.

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

Honestly from the experience I had with this project I do not see anything significant to share for ateliware to improve. At least I didn't experience any difficulties or problems.