Code Provider

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of the software engineering team for Europe and Asia for Granicus. We develop government-related software, mainly for the US, Canada, and the UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Code Provider?

We had a massive amount of work, and the local UK-based team didn’t have the capacity, so they hired Code Provider as contractors to help with the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Code Provider is essentially an extension to one of the existing teams. They’re full-stack, JavaScript, and PHP developers. They do both frontend and backend web development.

What is the team composition?

Now, we have four PHP developers and one automated testing engineer. At some point, we had eight developers.

How did you come to work with Code Provider?

We needed a few PHP developers to help the UK team. They were sourced by another company that had a relationship with them in Poland, so they subcontracted those PHP developers to us.

How much have you invested in them?

We spend about $25,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

They were already our contractors before I joined the company. I started working with them in September 2019, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We track many metrics against all of our projects and have a standard way of monitoring Granicus’ teams. We haven’t had any issues, and they’ve been consistent. Code Provider has excellent developers — their metrics are the same as all the developers in the organization.

How did Code Provider perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve worked with them for many years, and they’re fully integrated with the UK team. They’re included in all the Slack and email communication and are part of the daily meetings, weekly planning, and refinement meetings. At the end of every two-week sprint, we have a retrospective meeting in which they’re also involved.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re great team players; they’re very committed and competent. The team does a thorough job, and some developers are very technically strong.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just make sure you fully integrate them the way that we did. If they’re an integral part of your team, and you constantly meet with them, they’ll feel like they’re part of the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

ProVia is a global Commercial Vehicle Spare Parts brand launched by the leader of the automotive industry - Wabco (currently ZF), operating in several countries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Prepare a multilingual website, visually attractive and functional, integrated with our systems.

SOLUTION

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

By recommendation and networking. We knew that the Code Provider team had extensive experience in the production of large IT systems with extensive functionalities.

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

The system is based on Wordpress with the product catalog managed by WooCommerce. Separate plugins were created for integration with our PIM (Product Information Management) and DAM (Digital Asset Management) systems.

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

We worked closely with a Project Manager and a team of 2 PHP developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The result of the work of Code Provider is a modern, fast and secure system providing convenient content management (including easy materials update). It allows simultaneous changes in the offer by employees of different branches. The system significantly shortened the time of publishing new content and improved its quality.

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

We communicated mainly via weekly teleconferences and ad-hoc calls when needed. All planned tasks and comments were processed in the ticket system.

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

The understanding of our needs and flexibility in terms of third-party software changes are impressive.

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

no, the process was very smooth

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

senior IT administrator

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were looking for a tool to help organize workflow in our newly created shared service centre.

SOLUTION

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

We decided to send Code Provider the inquiry after a deep research of the ready-to-use solutions. We dediced that creating a custom-made system that fits our business needs would be better for us than changing our processes to fit in the ready solution.

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

First they helped us to map the process and identify the workflow. Then they presented the whole process mockup and explained it to our team. The implementation process was very quick - within a month we had a system fulfilling all our business needs.

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

Only the Project Manager who coordinated the communication.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All the manual work wasautomated. Before the implementation our employees had to personally deliver documents from budgetary units to the shared service centre. Now it is done by the system itself what saved us a lot of time.

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

Punctual, quick contact, all bugs are registered in the bug reporting system, fast and documented helpdesk

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

openness to ideas, template approach to the issue. They worked with a physical template and developed a digitalized solution for our program.

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

They are, but I have to think of them first, because the system is open to additional ideas

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO PROFES Sp. z o.o. Sp. k.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to replace the existing, desktop system (which was no longer supported and did not meet our expectations) with a modern, browser-based solution. The aim was to support sales activities and the implementation of training projects carried out for the largest companies in Poland. With time we also decided to design and implement the budgeting module (AOP) as well as the workflow of cost documents and integrate it with our financial and accounting system.

SOLUTION

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

Code Provided was recommended to us by our IT support company. They convinced us with their approach to the topic and experience in the designing and implementation of web systems.

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

Worflow of the project:

1. UI & UX (identification and sessions with users, mockups of particular views)
2. Implementation
3. Tests
4. Training of employees In the following years, we further developed the system to meet the changing business environment.

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

We worked closely with a Project Manager who organized the work of the team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• full standardization of processes 
• significant increase in efficiency of the accounting team
• integration with financial and accounting systems saved

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

The project went according to the plan. New functionalities and changes were introduced fast. We had regular meetings bur also communicate via email and phone

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

They have a full understanding of our needs. Although years later we decided to drop some CRM functionalities and use an open source solutions, we still use the core of the system and we can still count on support when needed.

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

There is always a place for improvement :)

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are producers and retailers of custom made shooting vests for professional purposes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had been running our business without creating the professional website. The biggest challenge was to create a web-shop with all the options to customize our tailor made vests and to implement the process from client's order and payment to final delivery.

We had no competences to do so and we hired Code Provider to do everything for us.

SOLUTION

How did you select Code Provider and what were the deciding factors?

As they were recommended by our friends we decided to have a chat with their general manager first. After describing our idea he convinced us that they are able to do it. As for the startup back then, the budget was tight and it was more convenient for us to hire Polish company than to do it on German market.

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

From our perspective the technology was not that important. We weren't expecting huge traffic anyway. After they heard our story they adviced to go with Wordpress combined with Woocommerce. First we were working on the graphic design and web content + description of the process of placing the order (including our custom features).

Then they implemented everything in Wordpress and Woocommerce. After the additional tests on our side we had to implement some slight changes in the flow but in the end all went good.

How many people from the Code Provider team worked with you, and what were their positions?

During the project we had constant contact with the project manager. After we signed the contract we had also contact with graphic designer and later on chef of Q&A. All the calls were made online and in the company of the project manager who was a buffer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching the website the traffic was growing relatively fast. Considering we started with nothing, we considered few quotes a day a big success.

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

During the designing phase we had 1 call a day to present the ideas and choose the direction. During the implementation phase we had weekly catch up calls. There were also ad-hoc meetings if necessary. The project was run in their Gitlab. We used rocket-chat and standard calls to communicate on daily basis. Usually we contacted the project manager who was dealing with the rest of the team.

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

They understood our story. They asked the right questions and were able to give us some helpful advice to do some things differently. They were also very flexible (implementing some changes and not charging us extra)

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

For sure. They could be quicker and cheaper.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

PROLANG Language Services

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To extend and maintain the application for managing the school

SOLUTION

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

Because of good recommendations and high skills of the team members.

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

1. To include additional financial reporting within the system
2. To extend the current functionalities of the notifications.
3. To modify the resulting pdfs PHP, MySQL

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

1 - PHP Developer
2 - Chief Developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Good communication and questions on the part of Developers prevented us from barking up the wrong trees

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

Agile based on tasks

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

Their high expertise and good organizational skills are most impressive.

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

Not really, all fine.