Edge One Solutions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of development at a Polish retail company that’s well-known in the online industry. We sell culturally significant products like books, music, and crafts. Two weeks ago, we started selling tickets for regional cultural events.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edge One Solutions?

Our former head of development hired Edge One Solutions before I started here, and I’m not entirely sure why.  I assume we needed resources our company lacked, which is a typical situation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project we worked on together was an application for one of our brands. It features a portal where users can upload pictures and order albums, prints, or customized items like t-shirts and teacups. Edge One Solutions developed the backend platform our call center, headquarters, and production staff use. Everyone responsible for creating our merchandise can access the administration panel. The team also helped us with an e-commerce platform which our six on-site developers initially created here in the office. 

We are still using Edge One Solutions' team as a resource. They help us develop platforms our company authors by creating new functionalities and features. The backend is 100% Java. We're using the Spring Framework which includes Spring MVC and Spring Boot. Our team built the frontend in-house utilizing a mix of HTML and CSS scripts that are Angular.js 1.6 and React.

What is the team composition?

The team is composed of around 17–18 members, four of which are manual testers. We also had a dedicated account manager.

How did you come to work with Edge One Solutions?

Edge One Solutions was already a partner by the time I took on this position.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2016. Edge One Solutions is still providing services for our platform. The portal is functional and currently in use, but we froze this project a year ago due to internal issues. It’s not finished at this stage. We will either continue improving it or focus on something new. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have specific metrics to share, but I’m sure we would be very far behind without Edge One Solutions. I can only imagine the disasters we would have experienced without them. They’ve made substantial contributions, but it’s hard to measure the influence on our business. I am very satisfied with both the quality of their service and their approach to delivering the specialists we needed. Their engineers created high-quality features.

We’ve seen a very low number of bugs. I don't follow each sprint. My team leaders handle any issues within our company and alert me when needed. I haven't had any problems with Edge One Solutions in the two years I've been here. Everything went smoothly.

How did Edge One Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

The specialists from Edge One Solutions worked partially from our offices and remotely. The team uses Skype videoconferences, so they always know what each member is doing at any given time. We can scale the development team up or down based on our changing budget and needs. 

The key account manager is easy to reach. They communicate very well, and we’re still in contact. I’m pleased with the experience so far. They always sourced backend and frontend developers for us, even when we only gave them short notice beforehand. We use Agile two-week sprints based on Scrum methodology.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with the level of support they extended to meet our needs. Time is crucial for me, especially in the e-commerce business. If I need a new feature quickly, I know I can call Edge One Solutions, and they will assign an engineer to handle it.

We’ve planned promotional campaigns for the next weekend, and they’ve delivered 2-3 landing pages on time. We wouldn’t have had the resources to accomplish this internally. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

At this stage, it’s tough to find any areas they could improve. I am more than happy from the service level perspective and had no problems with the developers.  The prices could be a bit lower, but that is always the case. The online IT business is a growing market. Developers should know their worth and expect a reasonable salary for their services.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Our cooperation with Edge One Solutions has been a valuable solution. They have great developers who are always willing to offer consulting and support with architecture and project planning. We didn't need these services, but I know they have the skills and capacity to provide them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a development company that's creating software for travel agents to book airfare, lodging, and transportation. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edge One Solutions?

We engaged Edge One Solutions to provide remote development staff augmentation. Over the past three years, we've been working on a substantially large project together.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Edge One Solutions was very helpful as we went through an intensive recruitment process to hire 20 engineers.  A year later when we secured additional funding, we scaled up to 30 resources. We wanted to add more features and had much more work to do than anticipated. One team has an office in a city in Poland, and another is located in Dallas, TX. Working remotely, they collaborate with our in-house developers. For our purposes, they assigned two scrum masters or project managers to work on site when the team included 30 people. One manager oversees the 15 personnel who are currently involved. They all report to me from their remote location. 

In the beginning, we visited their location about once a month with our business analysts to share insight and knowledge with the developers. From a technical point of view, they're highly skilled and well-trained at coding but lacked experience with the highly specific airline sector. Software engineers can’t be familiar with every industry, so we had to guide them a bit. From my understanding, this is a standard aspect of development projects. 

What is the team composition? 

We started with a 20-person team and scaled up to 30 a year later. As the volume of work decreased, we gradually limited the size of their remote team. Some of the engineers asked for rotation in the meantime. We could naturally grant these requests without having to backfill their positions. Around 15 developers are currently assigned to our project. 

How did you come to work with Edge One Solutions?

When I joined this project a month or two in, my manager and I interviewed two interested vendors. At the time, Edge One Solutions had just established their company. It was immediately clear they were genuinely invested in making us happy. They were much more engaged in the process than the other vendor and displayed a higher probability of success. We had a very positive feeling about them from the very beginning of our collaboration. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this project about three years ago, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Right now, Edge One Solutions accounts for two of the ten teams assigned to our entire project. They work seamlessly with our larger organization as a whole and follow the exact same processes. We’ve established a detailed QA process to find any bugs in the software and flag potential issues as early as possible and track measures like team velocity. They’re performing at the same rate as our internal employees and delivering an equally high level of quality. There's virtually no difference between our employees and Edge One Solutions' contractors aside from their location. 

How did Edge One Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Based on the length of our engagement, Edge One Solutions performs quite well. If there had been any significant problems, we probably wouldn't continue working together. They communicate promptly and clearly and perform all their tasks on time. We haven't encountered any issues with their team. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Edge One Solutions has talented key account managers who communicate effectively and regularly visit our office in Krakow. They maintain an impactful client relationship model, and it's easy to see how much they care. The resources they provide are highly trained, well-educated, and develop high-quality deliverables. A critical reason our project is progressing so smoothly is the quality of their teammates 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We've had some minor challenges throughout the years, but one of the team's best advantages is how quickly they react to any of my concerns. I always feel comfortable calling them and can trust they'll fix the problem at hand. I don't see any particular items for improvement. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

From my experience with Edge One Solutions, I've found they're open to collaboration. If you speak regularly and specify your exact needs, I'm confident they'll do whatever it takes to satisfy you. Edge One Solutions is highly cooperative, communicative, and always willing to help.