Caserta

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is a software provider for the auto industry. Primarily, our customers are dealerships. My role is program manager with our products and technology organizations. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Caserta?

We engaged them to help us with data architecture to better leverage and monetize the data we were collecting as we worked to build out a new data platform for internal use and data analytics for customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contracted them to assist us with reviewing and designing the architecture, making recommendations as they saw necessary. Additionally, we were considering engaging them on additional pieces of functionality to deploy in a limited fashion. It was intended that the scope of that project would evolve as they completed the assessment of our environment. 

We ended up collaborating in the master data management space for consumers, customers of dealers, and end buyers. They built an economic model and some infrastructure for that system. They assessed the platform and made recommendations on how to improve our data governance as well. They overview governance very broadly across the organization to assess and recommend solutions across the data management space. 

They ended up building out a playbook to guide our company in the implementation process of that governance as well. We asked for recommendations on the best technologies to use for our purposes, and they recommended Snowflake. While we pivoted quickly to focus on our consumer canonical model, they helped build out a modern tech stack to help us centralize consumer data. That was built in Python, uses Elasticsearch, and was deployed using AWS.

What is the team composition?

There were five people appointed to the project. 

How did you come to work with Caserta?

I found them via web search while searching for potential partners for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We collaborated between April–July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re now working to take their proof of concept forward toward new production and infrastructures to provide data services to the application. Their work was fundamental in our ability to move that project forward. The quality was great for the time that they had. The governance playbook set up the guidelines for me to build out the governance functioning for our organization. 

We’ll continue to leverage the materials they put together to support our implementations. It’s imperative to safeguard our data as well as maximize its value, so we appreciate their guidance on data governance. 

How did Caserta perform from a project management standpoint?

They were professional in their high-touch communications with me. Everything was managed quite well, but we had trouble pivoting when we realized that our organization’s SOW didn’t reflect exactly what we needed. It would’ve been helpful if they were a bit more assertive with their recommendations and forthcoming with insights. They may have fallen short in representing the progress of the project in that way. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to execute and leverage their talented resources was impressive. They thoroughly thought through the business side of their contributions, which helped us from a legal standpoint. It was clear that they were thought leaders in their technical field. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if they could bring more visibility to the pieces they’re delivering. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We had a broad statement of work and struggled with that broadness. Make sure you’re being specific about your goals for engaging them.