C42 Engineering - Out of Business

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

Flipkart is India’s leading e-commerce marketplace.

What is your position?

I’m a Principal Architect.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge(s) you were attempting to address when you began the relationship with C42 Engineering?

At the time of our engagement, we were in the process of devising a team to rewrite code for our entire supply chain management system. We’d already chosen to go with Ruby. We needed a technology partner to augment our internal development team and to spread best practices around the use of Ruby and agile practices.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of work in greater detail?

In total, we had five small teams of between four and six developers. One C42 consultant was appointed to each team. They worked in all aspects of development, design, testing and deployment.

How did you select C42 Engineering as your solution partner for this endeavor?

I used to work closely with the founders while holding a different position. We’ve known each other for a while. I respected them highly as my peers. When we began our search for potential partners in the Ruby space, their name came up as a strong candidate. C42 was one of 3 consulting partners we worked with.

When was this project completed?

August 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you provide a sense of the size of this project in monetary terms?

We ended up building at least 20 large services running Ruby. This was an overhaul of an entire inventory and supply chain management system. It was well into the six figures.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

Their involvement in the project as consultants limited our ability to attribute results in that manner. The projects have been hugely successful, but because we collaborate so closely, it’s really impossible to credit a certain amount of that success exclusively to their team. The system that we rebuilt has been in operation for a year and a half now, with minimal issues. It’s already processed nearly $1 billion in revenues and the system on the whole performs extremely well.

When working with C42 Engineering, is there anything you’d consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors?

They’ve been strongly influenced by agile methodologies and particularly extreme programming. They’re definitely a quality Ruby development shop, and while their use of the agile methodology might not be unique, the quality of their work and their flexibility with client requests are very noteworthy.