ELEKS

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a mobile application software provider. Our applications are used within the wholesale distribution industry for their mobile field force.

What is your position?

I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ELEKS?

ELEKS have worked on software development and maintenance of our existing systems as well as engineering and application design.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We've worked on almost every platform imaginable, including Android, Windows Mobile, iOS, and so on. At its peak, the team they provided us consisted of 15 developers. We interacted with them directly and used an agile methodology for most projects. Most of our projects lasted for upwards of a year and sometimes longer. 

How did you come to work with ELEKS?

We found them through references from colleagues in the industry.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since 2001. The relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Insofar as the partnership went, ELEKS has made plenty of mistakes, but that's the nature of technology and software itself. It's not anything unusual, and the successful management of our project has outweighed those mistakes.

Whenever any issues occur, the greatest attribute of working with them is that it will be understood and their management will work to correct them, either in a compensatory way or by changing rules and team members. We have a synergistic relationship. From a development standpoint, we've had very successful projects. We've also had problems, just as with any other developer but, as a whole, the positives have outweighed the negatives.

How did ELEKS perform from a project management standpoint?

They've consistently been able to deliver their work on time and within budget. We use JIRA and Redmine for project tracking. These tools have been used for the entirety of our relationship.

What distinguishes ELEKS from other providers?

We started using offshores in India in the late '90s. It was a disaster due to the disconnection in culture, education, and socialization. It was difficult to work with Indian teams abroad because of a lack in creativity and little understanding of Western culture. If we were to ask for a specific feature, we would get exactly what we'd asked for. However, we weren't software developers or user interface specialists, which worked to our detriment.

When we first went to ELEKS, we found a different culture altogether. Requests came back embellished with the creativity of developers that think more in line with Americans. They have a better understanding of business needs. As a result, our applications reflect the level of creativity coming from ELEKS. This isn't an inherent characteristic with other offshore providers.

These guys are actually dedicated to their clients' success and go the extra mile to ensure things are done right. People have worked with me for 10 or 11 years. They desire to see us succeed and work with us long term. On the opposite end, while working in India, we found that the majority of lower-level programmers, who were actually doing the work, had a desire to move to management as quickly as possible. They get there by meeting certain benchmarks, such as if they completed a project on time, and their ultimate goal is not necessarily to see your company succeed or to be a part of your long-term success. Their individual goal is to make it out of the development role and into a management one, move on to a bigger project, and eventually get to work for Google. The team at ELEKS is committed to our company and projects, aiming to have a long-lasting relationship, instead of treating the collaboration as a stepping-stone in their personal career.

Could you share any tips or recommendations for potential buyers without much experience managing an information technology project?

The number one requirement for any prospecting customer is to select a good project manager. After that, they have to meet the team in person. It's possible that ELEKS could assign to you, as a customer with a small project, some junior programmers lacking in the leadership skills necessary to complete your task correctly, on time, and on budget. It's most critical that whoever is going to lead your team understand your business. I would even recommend bringing that person to the United States in order for them to see how you do business, meet with a customer and other things of this nature. If that's not possible, go to ELEKS in person.

I've recently gotten a call from a customer who was disappointed in certain things. They wouldn't be specific, but they were simply not happy with how their project was going. They'd never met anyone from their team, except through Skype. This was the first problem. You have to make sure that the person leading your project understands you, your customers, your business, and your needs. If you don't have that confidence, don't start the project. You also need to know that the programmers assigned to your team have the same sense of urgency as yourself. You should, at the very least, inquire about their CVs and diplomas.

A personal connection is necessary. You can't hire ELEKS and hope for the best, which is true for any software development company. Once you've met with them, if you don't agree that your project manager is the right fit for the company, that issue needs to be changed first, before engaging on a yearlong endeavor.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a professional services consultancy specializing in IT software solutions, predominantly for the legal and financial industries, with the first being our biggest practice area.

What is your position?

I am the head of development within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ELEKS?

Our original goal was to have the ability of adding a couple of extra developers to our team during peak periods of project work. They were brought in as an emergency resource. ELEKS has performed so well in that role that our relationship has since expanded beyond that original capacity.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We were looking to expand our products' scope, so we allowed the ELEKS team to focus on building our product suite. We've worked with them for the past five years in building a strong portfolio.

We handle most of the design aspects and coming up with the goals for our products, but their team acts as our builders and quality control. We rely on them throughout this process, and ELEKS has been very helpful.

They primarily develop our solutions in Microsoft .NET. Most of our software tends to be MVC [model-view-controller] web applications.

Their team varies in size depending on the project type. We've built our biggest product to date last year, which had a team of 8-10 developers on average working on it, while at its peak, it retained up to 20 people. We're starting new projects at this moment and only have a team of about 6-7 developers, which will be ramped up in the following months. One of the things ELEKS provides is the flexibility to do this. They are there to listen to our demands and are very supportive. Whenever we've needed a couple of extra developers in an emergency, they haven't failed us.

How did you come to work with ELEKS?

They were recommended to us by a longstanding partner, whose opinion was spot on. We're glad we got that recommendation.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The annual development cost is around $400-500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them for more than five years. It’s an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Generally, we evaluate milestones on a project-by-project basis. Lately, we've undergone fixed price and fixed goal projects with ELEKS, which are easier to evaluate. Even during our old project model, they've performed very well. There were instances in which we changed our minds and altered the scope. ELEKS is very good at tracking any such deviation. We are a very demanding client, but they've hit every goal set for them in terms of metrics.

Legal firms have set ways in which they have to do certain tasks, and working with companies from around the world, we have a diverse audience, but generally feedback has been very good. With each product released, we've gotten better at the process, learned new things from previous releases, and embellished certain features. The work ELEKS has done has not only drawn positive feedback, but has also opened up debates and discussions that we wouldn't have had otherwise. People have looked at a particular new feature and asked if it could be extended to do something more. The apps are feature-rich and have many possibilities.

How did ELEKS perform from a project management standpoint?

If we ever have to hit a quick deadline due to an upcoming tradeshow or similar situation, ELEKS will accommodate us. They assign additional people to our project and even work extra hours on weekends and during evenings.

There have been a couple of areas in which we approached them for particular skillsets which we were missing. As an example, a couple of years ago we were looking to make a mobile version of one of our products. It was a serious decision on our part between using an outside developer and recruiting internally. Within a couple of days, we'd received recommendations from ELEKS for capable people in their company. We had a call and met with one of their developers. This wasn't something we thought ELEKS would be able to help us with, but ultimately they pulled the resources out of their bag.

Overall, we haven't challenged them as much as other companies. We tend not to deviate much from the Microsoft stack. From what I've seen though, ELEKS is able to accommodate diverse requirements.

Recently, we've started looking at in-depth performance testing of our products. We gave them a scenario for what we were trying to achieve. Within a week, ELEKS had returned with a very detailed document of what our approach should be. It was something new for which we had limited expectations, but they came back with a solution that was precisely tuned to our needs. They know us as a customer, and have been able to deliver constantly.

We used to use Team Foundation Server, but have moved to Confluence and Jira for project tracking. This has come as a recommendation from ELEKS. They've been using those tools themselves for some time. They showed us how they work with them, and the process seemed an improvement from what we had.

What distinguishes ELEKS from other providers?

We get approached by a lot of offshore providers wanting to do work for us. I've had discussions with many of them. What sets ELEKS apart from similar firms is the partnership and rapport that they deliberately cultivate with their client. It's easy to have offshore resources with no real relationship and just an email address to which you send work.

The relationship we've built with ELEKS has been driven by them. They have a UK-based account manager who comes in to our office whenever there's an issue or there is a new project. They're very proactive in doing this. The staff in Ukraine are all English speakers, they engage us, and always prefer calling rather than making email chains. They're open to suggestions as well.

The fact that they have this openness and flexibility has made this engagement work. When I first started working with them, I was skeptical about offshore arrangements. In the end, we've made it work, and it's largely due to the ELEKS team's positivity throughout the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a provider of a training management system mainly for the aviation industry, but also to other customers. For example, we also do record keeping for pilot licenses. If you think of a pilot who is flying an A-380, he needs to be licensed to fly that plane. All those prerequisites and all the licenses are recorded in our system. Our system also calculates when a pilot needs to go for his next training to keep his license valid.

What is your position?

I am the head of QA [quality assurance] and support.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ELEKS?

I was not with the company yet when ELEKS was chosen as a service provider. They do a lot of testing for us. They help ensure that the quality of the software is as expected by the customers. The ELEKS team helps me on the QA, for both manual and automated testing. They also write technical documentation for the user manual and our online help.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

They mainly provide quality assurance support. There was also a project they worked on dealing with course content. A user can download manuals on an iPad app, which was developed by the ELEKS team.

For the QA team, there are mainly two people from ELEKS that work full-time for us. At times, there are some huge testing efforts needed, and the team was increased accordingly. For documentation, for the past couple of years, we only needed resources from them when new software was completed. At those times, we used between one and five people. This year, we have one permanent technical writer supporting us and writing ongoing documentation. When we have releases, our demand is higher, and they provide additional resources. For example, with the last release, we had two additional people writing the support documentation for one month.

How did you come to work with ELEKS?

I don't have this information.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship is ongoing. Our most recent milestone with ELEKS was completed September 24, [2015] and work on the next release has already begun.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

On the first project I did with the ELEKS team for the documentation, the timelines did not match what we expected. We had some meetings to identify some issues that were present, and they got resolved. Since that time, we have never had an instance of missed deadlines on our milestones. When the release date would come, everything that ELEKS was expected to deliver was there, be it the online help, the user manual, or the testing team. It's been two years now, and they've been consistently on time, and they have provided the level of quality expected. At this point, their work is very reliable.

How did ELEKS perform from a project management standpoint?

We use JIRA for project management and bug tracking and resolution.

What distinguishes ELEKS from other providers?

I haven't worked with other similar providers, so I don't have anything to compare. We are totally satisfied with ELEKS, so we've not had the need to search for a different provider.

Is there anything ELEKS could have improved or done differently?

No. I don't have any recommendations for them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're an enterprise software company. We have multiple products, and our area of focus is generally what you would call professional services industries. That encompasses any business in which professionals work with a client on a project by project basis. That can be accountancies, law firms, and consultancies, there are some people in financial services, there are even large Fortune 500 type companies, where they're so big that they run their own professional services businesses in-house. That's the broad reach of what our customer base looks like.

We tend to be pretty global in terms of where our customers are. There are a lot of them in the United States, but we also have customers in Europe and APAC [Asia-Pacific]. In a typical product that we sell, as enterprise software it can be a little bit complicated. It's pretty configurable. The expectation levels are pretty high for our customers. We engage with them in a project where the software gets set up and configured for them on a per-customer basis.

What is your position?

I am one of the founders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ELEKS?

We began to work with ELEKS through a subsidiary. We did some process and culture change and adjustment to fit our model, and we've had a lot of success with ELEKS. We've actually expanded the relationship as a result.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Most of the offshore development companies that are out there are just that - they provide contract development and QA services. ELEKS has a bigger picture view. They try to cover more of the product development from end to end, and to even staff and organize for centers of thought leadership and expertise within their company.

In particular, we've been working with them a lot on the development of our mobile apps. They have a department or a center of excellence, where mobile development is one of those, and what's actually pretty interesting and unusual about them is that they bring ideas to us sometimes. For example, they brought to us the idea of developing a prototype or a beta version of an Apple Watch app, which we agreed would be a good idea.

We worked together with them on that, and they delivered something to us that we could then show to some of our prospective customers. That was pretty cool. They brought what they thought was an innovative and valuable idea to us, and we worked together on that.

They are doing traditional development, software QA/QC [quality assurance/quality control], and other things like that for us. They are using a variety of technologies to work on our projects. It runs a range from the Microsoft .NET stack in some cases, to the various technologies that are used by native mobile platforms; that include Java, Objective-C, C++, and Silverlight. It's quite a broad range, and they have different people who have different areas of expertise. There's a larger team, but within that there are groups that are working on different technology stacks.

I think that the whole team size that works for us, in terms of product development, is somewhere around 20 to 25 people. We're building mobile apps on multiple platforms, so a good chunk of that is native mobile app development for iOS, Android, and Windows devices.

How did you come to work with ELEKS?

Our relationship with ELEKS began as a result of their engagement with a subsidiary. We maintained that relationship, and it's been very fruitful.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We don't do much in the way of fixed project work. We actually employ full-time staff of 20 to 25 people on an ongoing basis, and when one feature or project is done, we find the next thing for them to do.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them a few years ago, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I think mainly what I have is anecdotal. I oversee an engineering organization that uses multiple such contract partners – some of them are offshore – to deliver software, so I have a basis for comparison. ELEKS is professionally as competent as any of them. Their ability to staff technical personnel is exceptional. What I find most interesting about them and sets them apart is their ability to focus on areas of excellence and provide thought leadership to their customers. That's unusual in my experience and pretty valuable.

How did ELEKS perform from a project management standpoint?

Comparing them with other development firms that I have worked with, I would say they are comparable in the ability to deliver work on time, within budget, and without major defects. They do provide project management. You know, software is a tough business, and there's never a piece of software that goes out on time, and there's never a piece of software that goes out without some bugs, but I think they are competent in that regard, just like most of the teams we work with are. They manage it, and they do a good job.

What distinguishes ELEKS from other providers?

In addition, I would say the thing that has really set them apart has been that broad reach and bringing their creative thinking to try to bring even more value to us. ELEKS goes above and beyond when it comes to solving their customer's problems.

Is there anything ELEKS could have improved or done differently?

This probably isn't their fault, it's sort of a part of the model of offshore development. They are several time zones away from us and that can make things a bit difficult. They try to accommodate us by having a work schedule that goes fairly late into the evening. Nonetheless, that can be a little difficult in terms of communication and turnaround times when there are more urgent problems or pressing matters.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a company helping associations and organizations sell tickets for their events and activities, specifically looking at nonprofit organizations and trade associations. We work with professional associations that offer training courses or sporting associations that offer coaching, training, and things in this area. Those organizations usually are very much behind in terms of digitization.

Today, if you want to attend such a course, you have to send them a fax or a letter, and they will process it, the payment somehow goes offline, too. We try to provide the software service, where they can enter the courses into our system; be provided with a link or a widget, which they can then put on their websites; and everybody can register and pay online. With just one line of code, they can leapfrog to the current state-of-the-art in online technology and sell their events online.

That's the first pillar of our product area. Eventually, we want to extend this to managing all memberships of these organizations and go into other areas like communication with the members of the organizations.

What is your position?

I am the CTO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ELEKS?

It was getting the basic system up and running properly. There was a very rudimentary, quickly hacked-together proof of concept, but we involved ELEKS for the first real public launch of the usable product. It was already at the initial stage and we needed them to build our functional prototype.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in more detail.

Currently, we're using PHP in the backend. We are a web company, so the usual web front-end stuff. We are using JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS, like everybody else. I approached ELEKS to structure the whole system in smaller components, which can be replaced independently and, for each component, we can again decide which tools to use. Right now, it's PHP in the backend, but this may change in the future.

I took the role of the architect and made the technology decisions. We were allocated front-end and backend engineers and testers. I think ELEKS calls them "full-stack software developers," so I think we only have full stack software developers. Right now, we have two backend and three front-end developers, but we started smaller, with one backend developer who also did some of the front-end work.

We have a project manager, and she's required to do all the project activities onsite, but I also talk to the developers directly. ELEKS is very open to special approaches like ours. It was no problem to have every guy there get a webcam on his computer so that, with our regular conferences, we are actually seeing each other. We are not just having a call once a week, but we have one-on-one discussions as well. They're open to accommodating our requests and expectations.

We have definitely expanded the scope of their involvement, but it's really the one ongoing project, which is our product, and we're just extending the feature set.

How did you come to work with ELEKS?

The first contact was even before my time, and I think it was through a personal referral from somebody who had experience working with them. The original founders of the company started with ELEKS more than four and a half years ago, but they don't have technical experience. Then, I joined the team, I reviewed the work that ELEKS had done by then, and each of the developers. I was impressed to see the level of competency there. That's why we continued working with this setup and even continued to expand it.

The key criteria for choosing them was a combination of low cost, good quality, and trust. That's why the referral by that friend was so important – the trade-off between cost, quality and trust. Actually even looking at the fees, they are not the cheapest on the market, but it's the trade-off between quality and the cost. I think that's a good trade-off.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was maybe around €200,000 [approximately $226,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

As we are a startup, we don't have the time to identify benchmarks formally and then collect the data from our own situation. I'd say it's primarily from my experience at other companies when I can judge how long a task would take and whether the approach is smart or not. Then, I can judge whether ELEKS proposes a smart approach or the easier approach, which might cause more problems later.

I don't have a fixed number of benchmarks, but my own assessment is that they come with a good approach, they have a very disciplined way of developing, but you cannot assume this all the time. In terms of tools, you should really use issue trackers and bug trackers and test servers, so you see that they are used to industrial-grade software development and not just small hobby projects. I think that's also an aspect of quality.

I cannot give you any benchmarks or numbers, it's just my own assessment. Also, we have some advisors who are involved when we do a recruiting process. When we want to take somebody new into the team, their assessment is in line with mine, so it's not just my subjective opinion.

The feedback we've gotten from users has been great. The product is very successful in the market. It's difficult to reduce this to a certain feature because ELEKS is really our core supplier. Customers are delighted because we promised them we can get them their event registration site up within one afternoon, and it is actually like that. That's why they are very impressed because, so far, they were only used to IT [information technology] projects that took half a year or a year and, in the end, it still doesn't look and work as they were expecting it. In our case, we can really fulfill our promises.

How did ELEKS perform from a project management standpoint?

There were no issues with delayed or defective pieces of work. Of course, sometimes things take longer than originally planned but, in our case, this was because we were extending something – the scope was changed – so we really cannot blame them. In particular, when there's something going wrong, which is very rarely the case, then everybody is on board and working around the clock to fix it. That's also not something that I can usually rely on because we're not in the same room, but I need to have a trusting relationship with them, and that's definitely the case.

For the most part, they were able to meet the deadlines that we set unless we had changed the scope on them. Furthermore, what I would really like to emphasize is not only checking off the list of features, but also their ability to really identify with the product and understand it. If there is something that is not working as expected outside of their control, then still we are all on board and fixing it. It's close to having an internal development team.

In terms of project management tools, we're using JIRA. That's where the features and parts are clearly defined and then can be managed according to tasks and backlogs.

Sometimes, we do the strict sprints, where you decide what should be done within two weeks, and then you test and evaluate everything that's done after two weeks. This wasn't appropriate for our way of working, so now we're working independently and deploy something three times a week and then only once a week, just when something is ready. Actually, this was proposed by ELEKS as a more suitable approach. They proposed this and they were right. The development process is much smoother right now.

What distinguishes ELEKS from other providers?

The special thing is ELEKS adjusts to the expectations of the customer – they are open. Usually, they get a long document of what has to be done, then they make estimations, then they develop it for a few weeks and deliver it. In our case, it's really like working with an internal development team. We are in touch constantly through Skype and video conferencing. As I mentioned, everybody has a video camera on his desk.

I assume it was very unusual, but it was no problem to get into this state of working. I think the team members are actually enjoying it because it's a little bit different. In terms of the teams, they're very flexible and the management is very open to this. I think that's what is really special about their service – their flexibility, the openness, and the level of quality. One advantage of using such a supplier is you can scale the team much more easily than doing your own recruiting. Especially in markets like ours, in Munich, it's difficult to find talented developers. They have a pool of them, and they allow me to interview each of them before they join the team. But, from what I've seen, no matter whom I've interviewed so far, there's always a certain level of quality. That's also something special. I can trust that they have done a good pre-screening.

Is there anything ELEKS could have improved or done differently?

The quality is very good, and the relationship with the management is also very good. What you can always talk about is the price – they're not very cheap. They have been announcing for some time that next year they have to raise prices because exchange rates have changed, and so on. Of course, things can always be cheaper, but it's about the trade-off between quality and price. They're not the cheapest in the area, but that's acceptable for me because they deliver.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a leading antivirus company registered in the Netherlands and we have our development centers in the Brno, Czech Republic, Tel Aviv, and San Francisco.

What is your position?

I am a test architect. Before that, I was a testing team leader, testing manager for about five years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ELEKS?

That was about four and a half years ago. The scope of work varied in a very significant manner. It was a testing challenge; we had a new product that we had to prepare for AVG, which had recently acquired us, and we didn’t have enough testers in our company to meet project demand. Basically, we started with other companies from India, but we were not satisfied, and since the AVG in Brno used ELEKS, we tried to work with them, too. We had a very large scope of testing in a very short period, and that was the need.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater more detail.

Most of the tests were manual testing. In manual testing, we had everything; functionality, usability, server test, load and stress tests, the whole nine yards. This was the major scope of the testing. They dedicated several talented engineers that had a good understanding of not just the testing itself but also establishing an efficient testing environment.

How did you come to work with ELEKS?

They worked with AVG for some time beforehand. Our associates from AVG in Brno made the introduction and the recommendation.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I’m afraid I’m not sure about the total cost because I wasn’t involved directly with this aspect.

What is the status of this engagement?

This particular project was completed about four years ago, but we are still working with them to this day. There are some negotiations about their scope of work at the moment, but it has only been testing services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, benchmarks or user feedback from this engagement?

We are usually using eight testers a day. Right now there are also six testers in the mobile section. There were times when we had a lot of projects, and we were allocated 16 testers. The testers over there are very qualified and talented; they have degrees in computer science. The way we work is with a team leader, but I also speak with the testers directly. I can say that they are very responsible, they are working in a very dynamic surrounding. We sometimes change the task a few times a day. They work in an efficient way and deliver the results on time.

Also, there is a kind of retrospective that we are doing with them; sometimes they initiate it because they want to learn and to perform better. In general, if we weren’t satisfied we wouldn’t be still working with them. In the beginning, I used to give them the work and they provided the results, but now we came to a situation in which I regard them all as strategic partners. I explain to them the business logic behind our decisions, and sometimes I get valuable input from them. In general, we are very satisfied with their work.

How did ELEKS perform from a project management standpoint?

Until not so long ago, we used a testing management tool called DevTest, but most people don’t know it and maybe it’s not that good of a tool. We used a testing management system, and now we use JIRA for bugs and tracking. Even for the test management products, we import to JIRA.

What distinguishes ELEKS from other providers?

I think they care a lot about our input and about our products. They are very dedicated in ways that you don’t expect from an offshore provider. I think this distinguishes them, it makes it easy for me to work with them. From time to time, there are missed bugs and things like that, but even if I have a team here with me in Tel Aviv, things like that happen. It is a very low percentage of occurrences.

Is there anything ELEKS could have improved or done differently?

I don’t see any major issues, I really don’t. There are maybe some small issues, like the fact that not everyone speaks English that well. We are working in Agile, so there are a couple of testers in every team we have, and it works well. However, sometimes when we need something, we need all the testers together, and sometimes there are small issues of synchronization between all of them. In general, I am very satisfied with their work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

Teleologica is a management-consulting boutique that provides services primarily to the public sector in smaller jurisdictions.

What is your position?

I'm the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the challenge that you were trying to address with ELEKS?

The work we do is in the area of business transformation, and one of the key things that you need for business transformation is the capability to deliver new IT [information technology] systems that automate business processes. So, the challenge that initially prompted contact with ELEKS was to find a partner who could work with Teleologica to deliver new IT systems rapidly that implemented updated business processes.

Regarding the technology and solutions we're working with, it tends to be a cloud-based product set with a browser-based front end, which is accessed both by users accessing the systems across the Web and the internal users accessing the application through a traditional browser.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of their involvement in detail?

What ELEKS has done with Teleologica has been almost exclusively in developing bespoke applications, so the design and coding end of the project. We worked together on the requirements gathering and business process redesign. Innovation is handled elsewhere, and the technical design, information engineering is done by people at ELEKS.

How did you come to choose ELEKS as your partner?

This was a very long time ago and dates back to 2001. We did research, and we screened a number of organizations for the potential to work on a particular project that I had in mind as a test case for the working relationship. I was looking for a company that had strong IT capabilities, but also the flexibility to be agile in the approach we took. We needed someone to deliver rapidly and to high standards. ELEKS seemed to fit that bill best.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in financial terms?

It varies a lot because it's project-based, but an indicative annual figure would be £250,000 [approximately $390,000].

What is the status of this relationship?

The initial project, in 2001, was extraordinarily successful and has led on to continuing a strategic alliance during the ensuing years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback from this project?

One of the standard features of ELEKS is the ability to ensure that things happen on time and to budget. They're strong on that. In terms of results more generally, if one is thinking about quality in terms of customer satisfaction, our projects have enjoyed a consistently positive reception, and the work that we do is a direct result of references arising from the success of prior projects, it's a kind of a self-perpetuating cycle. All of our end customers have been very impressed with their products, and the feedback we receive usually revolves around adding new features rather than citing specific problems or defects for fixing.

I don't have any stats at my fingertips, but a number of our projects have been subject to independent reviews, for things like coding quality and other quality benchmarks. The independent reviews have rated the work done very highly.

Is there anything unique or special about ELEKS that really makes them stand out?

They do work to a very high standard. They apply information engineering disciplines to the work they do, and they do understand how important it is to meet customer expectations. I think those are the things that matter most about ELEKS and have been instrumental in their remarkable growth and success.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

Successful projects depend on a partnership, and it's a partnership involving all parties. If you want to succeed in those kinds of scenarios, you need to come into the relationship with that mindset about shared goals and shared rewards. If you adopt that approach, that will go a long way to ensuring success in the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I've worked with ELEKS at two different companies. The first company developed high-end entertainment automation software, which we used to revolutionize the way action movies are filmed. My second company performs medical informatics work.

We also used it to do events for Disney, Cirque Du Soleil, Universal Studios, and a bunch of other companies. ELEKS was instrumental in developing the software and some of the electronics platforms to be able to allow us to do that work.

What is your position?

I was co-owner and the CFO/CEO of the previous company, and I am currently the founder of the company I work at now.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ELEKS?

For the first company, the standard technologies that a lot of our competitors were using were PLC [programmable logic controller] or industrial controls. We wanted to implement a mesh network with a data abstraction layer, so that we could have many information protocols running on a single network. We could also provide integration between multiple systems and multiple devices to provide show control solutions down to the drumbeat or the camera frame. We wanted to coordinate projection, lights, special effects, 3-D motion, and camera control, down to a single camera frame. It was a very complex undertaking.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

ELEKS was instrumental in developing the back-end software, the data abstraction layer, the user experience, and they also helped us with the electronic layer. ELEKS even debugged firmware that shipped with chip-sets that maybe couldn't handle the refresh rates we were looking for. They were instrumental in the entire process.

At my current company, we mainly use them for staff augmentation. We controlled all the project management, design specifications, functionality, and technology choices in-house, but we were starved of quality developers. We needed ELEKS to provide us with Java-specific expertise and augment our team of internal developers. Nowadays, ELEKS is looking for solution-based clients, so we might actually be one of their legacy clients because we already had mature technology, and we are using them as team augmentation.

How did you come to work with ELEKS?

We found them through a referral in the 2000s, so probably 2003 or 2004. They had worked on some development for a partner of ours, and we took it from there.

Could you provide a sense of the size of the initiative in financial terms?

For the current company, our cumulative investment with them in time has been more than $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We don't have specific milestones or projects defined. It's just an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The strongest measure of their quality is that we still use them after 12 years. Across the span of multiple companies, changes in the executive team, big growth, and being invaded by the Russians, we still use them exclusively for those tasks. They're the first people we turn to when we need additional development support.

We have an excellent reputation with the quality of our product, and we're pretty happy with our ELEKS team members, but our own end-users wouldn't be able to differentiate between code that's developed in-house and code that's developed by ELEKS. The quality of work we get from them is as high as we would expect from anyone.

From a project management perspective, it's always smooth. The communication with management there is as good as time zones will allow. Even given the time zones, they're still responsive.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you would do differently?

Not for us. For me, they've always delivered an exceptional technology and staff for 12 years now, so I can't think of any way ELEKS could improve. They're a big company and have a lot of branches that we don't use, so I can't speak to the quality of those parts of their business.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

Whenever you're working with contractors, or even your own staff, make sure that you have a very clear specification for what the product is supposed to be. Be open to different technologies, and be open to different approaches, but be very clear on as many details and priorities as you can be. The clearer you are, the more likely you'll end up with what you're looking for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a technology and consulting company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed qualified and diligent Java programmers to assist in developing ERP, automation control, and a variety of other products.

SOLUTION

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

Personal referral

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

Java, PostgreSQL, Delphi,

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

We've had a team of between 7 and 40 for since 2005 depending on our market need.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They are great.

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

We meet with our team a couple times a week. They are really just extensions of our staff.

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

I'm impressed by their training and recruitment of top-performing IT professionals.

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

None.