develabs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of a software and professional services company that helps organizations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. We do their reporting and analysis around emissions. However, when I worked with develabs, I was the senior product manager at a financial planning software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with develabs?

develabs was a long-term partner of my former company. When I took on my role, they were already in place as our external software developers. Therefore, the challenge I faced while working with them revolved around building software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For our projects with develabs, we provided strategy documents and product roadmaps about what we wanted to build in the software. We described in detail the product, the strategy, and how we wanted it. Then, we interfaced with develabs to set up projects within their company and assign certain developers to engage and build the particular feature we were after.

We also provided high-level architecture documents from a product management perspective about the outcomes we were looking for and the functionality we wanted in the product. Then, we relied on develabs' technical knowledge to tell us how to do it. We worked together collaboratively, and they provided a lot of expertise in the building part.

As for the technology stack, we programmed in C++ using central components and other web frameworks to build the application. JavaScript and Java were also part of it. Our product was complex, with a lot of moving parts.

What is the team composition?

I worked with develabs’ CEO and CTO and their immediate reports, including 3–4 engineering managers. When I worked with them, there were about 40 members in their company.

How did you come to work with develabs?

As mentioned, when I started in my role, develabs was already part of our outsourced teams. However, I know that there was a personal relationship with the CTO; that's how both companies started working together.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around €4 million–€5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship between develabs and my former company dates back to 2009. However, My relationship with them started in December 2019, when I joined the company, and it ended in December 2021, when I left the company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main success criteria were delivering new features on time and on budget. Everything we did had a budget attached to it, and we had to deliver a number of features within that budget. Moreover, the timeframe was very important to us because we wanted to make sure things got done on time.

How did develabs perform from a project management standpoint?

They had project managers on develabs' side who talked to my product team. We engaged with them weekly to ensure that milestones were being hit and that the things we asked for were being built. Our collaboration was mainly virtual. Still, we flew twice a year to Bosnia to meet them in person, and they also came twice a year to Germany to meet us. The rest of our meetings happened via Microsoft Teams.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I would like to give a shout-out to Predrag and Drazen, the co-founders. They were very hands-on, and it was great working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There was a lot of pressure to deliver many features, but develabs was very good at managing expectations. If we asked them to do something extra, they were honest about when they wouldn't be able to complete another task in the timeframe because they’d used a lot of resources for the first task. They gave us this information months before, so we had a lot of ramp-up time to make decisions on how we wanted to proceed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We would have benefited from more in-person time throughout our relationship. We did a lot via Teams, but it was sometimes difficult to be face-to-face. For us, in-person communication was very important.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend a lot of time upfront ensuring that develabs is very clear with the requirements. Give them time to process those requirements and come back with further information or clarifications to ensure that the project will be a success.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the former CEO of a software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The company is an enterprise performance management software used for planning, analysis and reporting in finance and other areas such as sales, human resources and procurement. The core is a cell-oriented, multi-dimensional in-memory OLAP database

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire develabs to accomplish?

• Develop a Spreadsheet-based environment for building applications and reports - based on the company's multidimensional OLAP database
• ETL Tool to load data from third-party systems in the company's Olap Server

SOLUTION

How did you find develabs?

Referral

Why did you select develabs over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from develabs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Develabs created a comprehensive spreadsheet web application, featuring proprietary extensions to streamline both application and report development. On the backend, several services were developed from the ground up, while the maintenance and further enhancement of the spreadsheet server backend have since been taken over. Develabs is also responsible for the Integrator (ETL) Client web application, which manages the ETL server that handles workload execution.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project delivered several measurable outcomes that clearly demonstrated its success. We saw significant improvements in efficiency, Additionally, user adoption was high, with positive feedback from our team on the ease of use and functionality. Overall, the project exceeded our expectations in terms of both performance and user satisfaction, driving tangible business results.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Their project management was highly effective. They consistently delivered items on time, often meeting deadlines ahead of schedule. Communication was smooth throughout the project, and they were highly responsive to our needs. Any changes or additional requests were handled quickly and efficiently, demonstrating their flexibility and commitment to our goals. Overall, they were proactive in addressing challenges and ensuring the project stayed on track.

What was your primary form of communication with develabs?

Email or Messaging App

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

Very smart and friendly staff. Able to fill gaps in the specification by themselves

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

While the overall experience with develabs was excellent, there’s always room for improvement. Although they were responsive, a bit more proactive communication or status updates during longer development cycles could have provided even greater transparency. But any time we reached out with questions or concerns, they were quick to answer and ensure our needs were met.