Premier provider of custom software development
First Line Software is a premier provider of software engineering, software enablement, and digital transformation advisory services to clients across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Headquartered in the US, First Line’s global staff of technical experts leverages agile technological excellence to efficiently deliver complex projects in retail digitalization, web content management & eCommerce, healthcare IT & real world evidence and data, machine learning and enterprise data management.
As active members in Object Management Group and the Industrial Internet Consortium, the company collaborates on establishing standards for technology, enterprise integration and Industrial Internet.
An Optimizely (Episerver) Gold Partner, First Line provides implementation and customization services to direct clients and in cooperation with other Epi Partners.
First Line Software is consistently recognized with industry rankings and awards from top global and regional, independent research agencies.

headquarters
other locations
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Louis Couperusplein 2, 4th FloorDen Haag 2514 HPNetherlands
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Na Havrance 1508/14143 00 Praha 12-Modrany 143 00Czech Republic
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Portfolio
Accenture, Bonnier Group, Clinic to Cloud, Partners HealthCare, Solita, Viastore, Solita, Viastore, and others.

Content Management Platform For Global Publisher
Our client undertook a strategic initiative to consolidate its 60+ online publications on a single Content Management System (CMS) in order to ensure uniform functionality, minimize maintenance costs, and to streamline online ad delivery, and maximize ad revenues. The key component of this program was the development of a unified content management platform based on Episerver (Optimizely) to enable the migration of client's websites.
First Line was engaged as the lead technical partner of the program. First Line set up a dedicated team of software engineers to deliver the project.
The platform developed by First Line consists of two main components:
Core: Web development framework (to be used mainly by developers) for creating websites’ architecture and data structures and for optimizing the interaction between the CMS and the database
Web editorial: An environment (workplace) for website editors that extends the standard CMS functionality and creates a highly intuitive user interface
First Line worked in a highly distributed environment, interacting with multiple outside teams and remote customers. Our specialists were responsible for the development, testing, configuration, support, and user documentation for the entire content management platform.
We also developed a proprietary methodology for the rapid migration of very large volumes of existing content to Episerver CMS. This methodology leaves the original look and feels and the URL structure intact, providing editors with the full range of Episerver’s online engagement capabilities while preserving familiarity and ease-of-use and maximizing SEO benefits at the same time.

Tracking Device Development
First Line Software worked with an innovative US startup company based in Seattle, Washington to develop a prototype device and accompanying software that enables its users to track their cargo, bag, or package anywhere in the world. This device is an incredible tool that companies can leverage to recover stolen property, track accurate progress of shipping within the supply chain, and consumers can use to track their valuables sent to loved ones. Part of what makes this device so unique is that it uses two location tracking technologies simultaneously – GSM and GPS.
The device uses a GSM module in its customary mode, i.e. its location details are sent out by connecting to the nearest cell towers utilizing Cell-ID triangulation. One advantage of this technology is the efficient battery power consumption – one charge is sufficient for three years of continuous use. One disadvantage is the limited accuracy of the location – between 100 and 200 meters. In case of emergency and upon user request, it is possible to activate operation of the higher energyconsuming, but more precise GPS module. For example, if an object that is connected to an iTraq tracking device
First Line Software met all design requirements and completed the prototype development within six months. The device case was downsized to 21×12 square millimeters. The battery life is guaranteed to last from one to three years of continuous use and will power 1500 sessions. Both the GSM and GPS modules are embedded in the device case along with the battery.
A mobile application for iOS and Android was developed to allow the end user to access the device and package location at any time using a mobile device. The mobile application can be customized to meet the user’s specific requirements and can be used to track the object’s movement on a map worldwide.

Clinical Pathways System Development
A clinical pathway is one of the main tools used to manage the quality in patient care concerning the standardization of care workflow and processes. Implementation of the clinical pathways reduces the variability in clinical practice and improves outcomes. Clinical pathways aim to promote organized and efficient care based on evidence-based medicine and aim to optimize outcomes in inpatient and ambulatory settings.
Our client - a leading Academic Medical Center in the United States, has engaged First Line Software to design and implement a healthcare software application that would allow the institution to define and execute a range of clinical pathways on a single technological platform that is integrated with EPIC medical EHR system on multiple levels.
Working jointly with clinicians, analytical team, and leadership of the IT organization from the client institution the First Line team has created a flexible Clinical Pathways platform where analysts can author virtually any pathway, define clinical dependencies and business logic, and document the workflow.

Program for the E-Commerce platform development
CLIENT
International retail group. The company operates more than 300 supermarkets.
CHALLENGE
During the first phase of the project, First Line Software has been focusing on making initial improvements:
- Develop product catalog
- Rapid migration of the client’s website
- Develop customer personal profile
- Group and run the Customer loyalty club (according to product categories)
- Provide migration of loyalty transactions from web to mobile application
First Line Software implemented the Digital Asset Management (DAM) system as a reliable digital marketing technology tool that functions as a central content management hub and makes it possible to share the client’s digital assets with customers to: save and organize photos, videos, illustrations, audio files, documents, design files and presentations. This system allows the client to manage and organize all their digital assets in one place.
During the entire project, First Line Software has been operating as a UX technology expert and has designed several client projects (from the concept development to completion of development and testing).
PROJECT DELIVERABLES
- Analytics
- Development
- Testing
- System configuration
- Support
- Technical documentation
FEATURES
- High-performance system (250,000 users)
- 70 per second visit website (approximately 2 million users per day - the highest volume in the retail industry)
- Product catalog consists of more than 100,000 products
- 20 million customers to take part in Client’s promotions (events, discounts) users

Programming module for Airlines’s mobile app
The luggage tracking service is based on the SITA BagJourney system, which operates by transmitting messages to SITA while moving luggage from one checkpoint to another in preparation for departure: at check-in, when loading on the aircraft, upon arrival at transfer points and at the destination airport. The efficiency of BagJourney is based on analysis of a substantial amount of data collected from 400 airports and 500 airlines.
The newly-developed software module by First Line Software collects technical data from SITA, saves it to a database, analyzes and converts information into a user-friendly format.
With the enhanced mobile application, passengers will know when their suitcase has been inspected and loaded on board. This is especially important for passengers who have connecting flights and check their luggage at the departure airport directly to their final destination.

Machine Learning for Data Governance in a Hospital
This continuous stream of analytics insights is often taxing for the infrastructure and is a burden for supporting IT staff. It is important to understand the following questions in order to increase the value of available analytics and potentially reduce the number of such artifacts:
- Which clinical, operational, or financial metrics are associated with a given report or a dashboard?
- Is a given report a complete and/or partial duplicate of another report?
- Do these reports refer to the same and correct data elements in the source EHR?
- Who are the right consumers for these insights in the organizations and who should have the rights to access them?
Answering these questions is challenging considering the amount of involved data and new artifacts constantly appearing.
A leading healthcare system in the United States has approached us for help. We have developed for this organization a searchable catalog that contains over 100,000 analytical insights and has been helping to automatically organize and classify them. We’ve been using machine learning algorithms to detect duplicates and similarities in the reports and provide the assignment of the right metrics and portfolio membership. These processes continue to evolve and improve with minimal human involvement as new analytical insights are being developed.
Upon deployment into production this system has helped to reduce analytical inventory by nearly 20%, cut turnaround in producing new reports nearly in half, and significantly improved the quality of analytics for the organization.
The infrastructure has been developed utilizing Microsoft Technology stack - .NET/MVC, Entity Framework, C#, SQL Server.

Web-application for energy management
Our client provides services for energy management based on their specialized software and research to enable optimization of energy consumption. Their customers are some of the largest retail and hospitality chains, universities, theaters, and many more organizations with large facility portfolios. They use this solution for enterprise energy management that provides their customers with energy cost reductions.
First Line Software has been developing a web-application for the client’s platform, so customers can view the energy data for their buildings in real-time. The application alerts the client about any trouble spots such as higher energy consumption and can be used by the client to compare different indicators themselves.
First Line Software developed the “Command and control service”, which allows for the management of several groups of devices from the unified system. Previously each device was controlled separately.
First Line Software implemented Microsoft Reporting Services, a simple analytics toolkit.
Four software development professionals from First Line Software developed the Building View solution. This solution is used to monitor the operation of energy-consuming appliances in the building. It provides real-time visibility with its console and assembles statistical analysis based on collected data. The solution was already in place but First Line redesigned and redeveloped it for their client.

Automation of Archive and Logistics Center
Client: Our client is one of the largest banks in Europe.
Project / Business Initiative
FLS was selected to automate its Archive and Logistics Center (ALC), which occupied 53,000 square meters. The challenging fact is that the ALC employees have no physical access to the storage areas and the entire process of archive operations is fully automated.
The client wanted to create a consolidated ALC to process and store the bank’s documentation packed in archive boxes. Special climate conditions were required in the storage zone - a reduced oxygen supply to protect the warehouse from fire, rodents, and insects.
Results : There was a dramatic reduction in the amount of time it took to receive documents from the bank ACL - from 3 weeks to a couple hours
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Application development of financial systems
Client: Contmatic Phoenix is a leading IT company founded in 1987 and based in Brazil. It specializes in the development of advanced software solutions for accounting and company tax management. With more than 17,000 active customers and over 100,000 users Contmatic Phoenix is the largest software company specializing in accounting in São Paulo and one of the largest players in this sector in all of Brazil.
Solution: First Line Software applied modern technology methodology to ensure fast application performance, scalability and high-speed development. In particular, by using Java, and the REST-approach, the team was able to develop a cross-platform system that can be easily integrated with other systems as necessary.

Large-Scale Passenger Loyalty Platform
First Line was engaged by a system integration firm as part of a larger IT transformation program for the end client, one of the world’s largest passenger railroad carriers.
Our experts were responsible for the requirements elaboration, design, development, testing, integration and deployment of the core engine of the platform. In the first phase of the project, our team has delivered a loyalty system that includes the following functionality:
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Online account management for passengers, Miles accrual and redemption, Bonus engine and rule-based decisioning, Integration with multiple internal and external systems. Ticketing and payment system, Customer support call center.
The platform was successfully developed on time and on a budget.
Total effort: 160 person-months
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Development and support of a single platform for regional websites of the O’Neill brand
The oneill.com web site supports a global community of extreme sports enthusiasts. The O’Neill platform covers three geographic regions – the United States, Western Europe, and Australia by localizing the content as well as prices, product range, and delivery terms.
Task: When this project was initiated, there were three sections of the portal – covering Europe, Australia, and the United States – that had been developed, and were functioning, as individual websites, including the use of separate CMS systems.
Project technology: EPiServer, .Net
Project result: The FLS team launched the portal into production and delivered a centralized regional content management system.
More details
Reviews
the project
Software & Platform Dev for Printing Company
"The team is really an integral part of keeping our clients happy."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I work in the technology department of a printing company called Sandy Alexander. Over the last few years, we’ve expanded our technology department, and my role is in product development and project management for the different technology initiatives our company is focusing on.
What challenge were you trying to address with First Line Software?
A few years ago, we identified a need for printing menus for the casual dining industry. Therefore, we started to develop a solution for marketing individuals at the casual dining brands, to develop a platform for them to build versions of their menus.
We were experiencing a challenge in developing technologies that can be integrated with printing. We wanted to expand the technology side of printing and help our clients easily manage their assets and that’s where we involved the First Line team.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Our main interaction with the First Line team is building a custom software. Additionally, we also worked with them to build an ordering portal so that clients can log in and see and purchase all their assets.
We started this project around three and a half years ago and used an agile approach. The first phase is what we call the menu solution. We build menus based on the data from different restaurants using a versioning algorithm. Big chain restaurants have maybe hundreds of different versions of their menu, so we base the data on prices and regional requirements — since certain states require disclaimers.
These menus can be quite cumbersome on the client’s part especially if they have to manage all of it manually. Therefore, the first phase is all about developing a tool to help clients better manage their menu data and versions.
The second phase is to build an ordering portal, and bring other clients outside of the casual dining industry onto that portal. Before this, we had like 3–4 different ordering portals that we were using for different clients. It just became too time-consuming to keep up with all of the different portals, especially since each one has a different configuration on the backend.
There’s a lot of button clicking, as well as not having good ways to import and export data, so we said it wasn’t a good way to do this. That's why we're building our own ordering portal with the First Line team, and developing a solution that can handle the different needs of our clients.
Additionally, we use Jira to document and track all of our issues and features.
What is the team composition?
Right now, we have three developers who we work with. However, over the last three years, we used to have a few more people working on this project. We’re thinking about getting QA back, but we kind of stopped because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
How did you come to work with First Line Software?
That I’m not sure about because they were already working with the First Line team before I joined the company. We did work with a web to print expert consultant when we first started the project, but I don’t know if they connected us to First Line or if we found them on our own.
What is the status of this engagement?
The company started working with them in October 2017, and it’s been ongoing since then.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
As far as metrics are concerned, we’ve been able to onboard a significant number of clients and they’ve all been able to use the software seamlessly. They’re a very great team to work with and they’re very knowledgeable. Often times they’re 1–2 steps ahead of us where they’ll provide us with different solutions on how to solve our problems.
Sometimes, when we have a critical bug that pops up in the system, it is immediately deployed to the staging environment, so we can test it and get it into production. This way, it wouldn’t have any negative impact on our users. The team is really an integral part of keeping our clients happy. They really understand the business value and a lot of what we’re creating, which is helpful because they’re the ones building our software.
How did First Line Software perform from a project management standpoint?
The First Line team is great and they understand what we require for each of the features. They can go ahead and do it and if they can’t, they ask questions. If we have requirements that don’t make any sense, they’re always thinking one step ahead of us in coming up with solutions for those.
The bulk of our documentation is in Jira along with the different user stories. They’re very responsive in Jira and we’re very clear with the business needs and requirements. All the comments in one specific issue are all in the same place, so it’s really easy to find and reference previous conversations. It’s kind of incredible how responsive they are sometimes because of the huge time difference.
We also use Slack to communicate with them, Google Spreadsheets to help track the issues that we create in Jira, and use email to schedule meetings. Additionally, we have daily standup meetings with the team so we can talk and catch up with them every day for 15 minutes. We also have a backlog grooming session just to go through all the user stories, and at the end of each iteration, we have a demo of the new features that we deploy.
Moreover, We run an agile method of software development, so we have three-week sprints where the team has a certain capacity to complete within those three weeks. They’ve always been very transparent because they tell us about their availability for the upcoming weeks. They created a calendar that shows their availability, so we have a good understanding of the team’s capacity for our next iteration.
What did you find most impressive about them?
We’re very impressed with their quickness in resolving certain issues and their transparency. They keep their estimates very realistic so that we’re not setting the expectations for our stakeholders unrealistically. They’re just a great team and I have nothing bad to say.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I don’t really have an answer to that one. I have nothing negative to say.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I would say that they’re very knowledgeable. I’ve worked with other developers, but I found that the First Line Team is very knowledgeable and helpful. I would totally recommend them to anyone who’s looking into their services.
the project
E-Commerce Web Dev for Consumer Products Company
"Their expertise in the solution definitely made the difference."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Our company specializes in consumer products and I am the COO.
For what projects/services did your company hire First Line Software, and what were your goals?
We hired FIrst Line to build our e-commerce site. They brought in the expertise with Epi and helped us realize our vision for the new site.
How did you select First Line Software and what were the deciding factors?
Through an RFP process. First Line was selected for its overall value in the RFP.
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.
We carry a variety of signature brands and SKUs that appeal to a wide-arrange of customers. We needed a solution that integrated well with our ERP / CRM. We also wanted a platform that was best in class and one we can build on in the many years to come. As many project lifecycles go we initially started with a vision, scoped out the requirements, and quickly got to work through development sprints.
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
5 - 10, depending on different parts of the project plan.
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
The project was a major success and well-received by our customer base. We have seen an incremental uptick in business on our web sales.
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.
The First Line team is very professional and willing to do whatever it takes to get the project done successfully. We facilitated regular status meetings to keep key stakeholders aligned with all deliverables.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
Their expertise in the solution definitely made the difference. Simply put there are subject matter experts and taught us a ton!
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
Not at this time.
the project
Software Development for Marketing Software Company
"They’ve had the necessary expertise to implement our vision."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the chief strategy officer at Triptych. We’re a marketing delivery company, meaning we do print and digital marketing. We also have a software sales and marketing enablement product, and I oversee that division of our firm.
What challenge were you trying to address with First Line Software?
We were trying to develop software that made it incredibly easy for sales organizations to achieve their goals. We hired First Line because we couldn’t find an existing product that fit with our vision. One of the main challenges was finding a company that could understand and focus on our users—salespeople—and create a product that didn’t require extensive training.
What was the scope of their involvement?
It’s almost entirely development. They’ve been working to bring together disparate types of functionalities to help users manage omnichannel marketing efforts.
Part of the challenges is building a product that handles different file types and size and creating a process for routing work to get approval from stakeholders. They’ve had to consider all different kinds of marketing—TV, bus wraps, email, and social media—along with traditional digital marketing.
What is the team composition?
I work with a broad group of people. Our relationship with them is not very hierarchical, and the team changes to match whatever we’re working on at that point in time. At different phases, I’ve spoken with a customer success manager, the vice president of sales, a lead developer, and a QA person.
How did you come to work with First Line Software?
We sent out an RFP to a group of firms from one of our tech partner’s approved vendor lists. Eventually, we narrowed down our options based on referrals. Although we went through that formalized process, it was the testimony from their past clients that lead us to choose First Line.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve been working with them for over five years now, and the partnership is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’re building a new product from the ground up, so I don’t have any metrics yet, but I am very satisfied with their work. They’ve had the necessary expertise to implement our vision.
How did First Line Software perform from a project management standpoint?
We’re in an Agile environment, so issues do come up, but they’re always moving the project forward. We’re happy with how they’ve managed change. Most of our communication happens through phone, email, or in-person dialogue. We have daily stand-ups and biweekly progress meetings.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their network of services sets them apart. At this point, they’re our go-to development partner. I don’t feel that much of a distinction between their staff and my own. If I have a problem, or we decide to start another development project, I look to them first.
They have a large team, and because of their breadth of services, they can give you that flexibility to work on other projects. Even if you don’t have a dedicated need, they can help you in many different ways. Adding another technology to your stack, for example, is one way they could support you.
Are there any areas they could improve?
We view them as a partner, but I sometimes have to remember that they are a separate group. We’ve had excellent communication with their team, but there have been times when their internal changes have causes problems. I’d like to see them reach out more proactively about staff changes or growth in certain areas. It would help us to know when they’re expanding their services because they’ve been growing quite a bit.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I would advise them to be very transparent and expect the same in return.
the project
Android App Dev for International Healthcare Solution
"We are confident that we will achieve even more success in the future with First Line."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I am the co-founder of YAPILI, a micro-subscription messaging service for health advice, online follow-up, and secure digital health records. In African societies where professional medical facilities are scarce, costly, and stigmatized, YAPILI offers people new opportunities to establish effortless, affordable, and confidential contact with local and international healthcare professionals for a variety of issues and conditions. After building the core team, developing the product, and rolling out a pilot program, I now advise on product roadmaps, financing, and operations.
For what projects/services did your company hire First Line Software?
We approached First Line Software to design, build, and deploy our web-based solution as an Android app.
What were your goals for this project?
We wanted to improve YAPILI’s usability on Android phones, which is the primary channel for online access in many of our African target markets.
How did you select this vendor?
We had heard of them by word-of-mouth within the The Hague business ecosystem. After connecting with First Line and explaining our challenges and aspirations, we found their team relatable on business objectives, technical solutions, and work culture.
Describe the project in detail.
This was a comprehensive and challenging software development task. Not only did First Line Software exceed our requirements in several engineering tasks, they also managed to guide us toward the backend enhancements necessary to serve the new app. Work began within four weeks of the initial engagement, and our very tight deadline was no issue for them. They were incredibly responsive to our needs and scaled quickly when required. We were not only grateful but surprised that such professional discipline still exists today.
What was the team composition?
The team consisted of an Android developer and business team from First Line as well as a technical team from YAPILI.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
The product has improved our business position enormously. In addition to winning awards, we are able to speak to interested investors with more confidence and a stronger product. Not only did First Line deliver on time, but their outstandingly professional, polite team easily surpassed the high standards we expected.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
Communication was their preeminent skill. Prior to development, they walked us through their process quickly and simply in order to clarify the scope and timeline of the agreement. They informed us immediately of any delays or complications, then worked tirelessly to resolve them.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
Because of their solid work ethos, flexibility, and mastery of skill, they are the most reliable aspect of our delivery pipeline. We are confident that we will achieve even more success in the future with First Line, so they will continue to be our first choice.
Are there any areas for improvement?
Based on the quality of our deliverables and the work produced by our collaboration, we saw no areas for improvement. We highly recommend them to anyone pursuing a software development project, regardless of complexity.
the project
Web App Dev for Energy Strategy Management Company
"Their level of service, attention to detail, quality, and thoroughness are all impressive."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the VP of Engineering for Phoenix Energy Technologies. We provide cloud-based IoT [Internet of Things] enterprise energy management solutions, which include energy monitoring and optimizations and reductions across buildings for a variety of different verticals.
What challenge were you trying to address with First Line Software?
We needed quick, scalable resources. We were growing our teams and I wanted to add an offshore team to supplement the people we were hiring locally. I was looking for trustworthy senior engineers that could work with Agile methodologies and had good communication skills.
What was the scope of their involvement?
The product set of our company is mature and we were developing enhancements to web applications. The core Engineering team, design, and architecture are all local since there is a high complexity and deep domain knowledge required in our space.
First Line was brought on for a particular project and has since been assigned to another engagement that became more important from a business standpoint. They initially provided resource supplementation for web application and database development and QA [quality assurance]. We since pivoted them to help build out new product offering that is launching in Q4 of this year. The technologies core is Microsoft stack – so primarily Microsoft.NET and SQL Server.
What is the team dynamic?
We initially brought in a more senior person to help with project and process standup, followed by a few more developers and QA specialists. We invited them to our California office location for requirements gathering and to build trust and communication with our local team. Currently, we’re using 4 of their members including the project team lead. We plan to bring them on for other projects in 2018 but the team size has been adequate for our current work.
We follow Agile, so our teams have Scrum meetings every day, either phone or sometimes via chat if little to discuss. We also conduct biweekly sprint planning, demo, and retrospectives. I also get on the phone with them on a monthly basis for higher level management meetings to discuss the current team, if there are any concerns, or identify opportunities to continue to streamline the processes. Open communication is key with remotely distributed teams.
How did you come to work with First Line Software?
I first worked with the FirstLine team 10 years ago when I was working for ScriptLogic. We were looking for an offshore development partner that could help us scale our Product Development costs. We looked at several different vendors, did site visits, and selected the FirstLine team. Over the years at ScriptLogic we grew pretty large teams that supported multiple commercial software products; ranging from in the 50 – 60-person range at one point. We contracted with them for development, QA, tech writing, and user interface/user experience design. ScriptLogic was bought by Quest Software and while in Engineering leadership there we expanded FirstLine teams for some additional products. Quest Software was subsequently acquired by Dell, and we had to onboard FirstLine as a Dell approved offshore partner and continued to use them to supplement our Product Development initiatives.
As I started building our Engineering and products teams here at PhoenixET, I knew that First Line would be a good option for managing costs and helping me ramp things up quickly. They’ve been a trusted partner to me for many years and have been able to adapt to whatever products or technologies I’ve needed, whether it was the Microsoft stack or an open-source technology. I appreciate that FirstLine is flexible on the business side and always able to find the right skills for my projects because I don’t have to start over with a new partner every time.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with First Line in September 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They’ve helped me contain costs as we scaled the team and have definitely helped us increase our productivity as a department by providing supplemental contract resources. The quality and automation levels will increase over time as we have more QA. The team is adaptive and strives hard to meet the schedules as required.
How did First Line Software perform from a project management standpoint?
Overall, they’re excellent to work with and if I have a question or a point to discuss, I can reach out to them and they are thoughtful and collaborative. They’re highly available despite the time zone difference; our project manager has been happy to jump on a call if needed at 10 PM. On the account management and sales executive side, they’ve been top-notch and supportive. Early on, FirstLine met with our executive team in order to present company overview which made everyone comfortable with them coming in as a new partner (since nobody knew them but me!).
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their level of service, attention to detail, quality, and thoroughness are all impressive. FirstLine works to integrate and understand the whole product set so they can be a helpful part of our team, unlike other offshore companies that simply follow instructions on project tasks. They’re dedicated, want to do the right thing, and not afraid to ask questions.
Are there any areas they could improve?
The only drawback is their cost—as they’re not the cheapest but we also get what we pay for. They need to continue to maintain prices and models at a competitive level.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Don’t be afraid to ask for their input. Many people think that everything needs to be spelled out up front when working with offshore companies, it’s great if you can do that all upfront. I’ve done it so many times that we have cookie cutter template processes, but for a new company starting with offshoring, it’s often because the current teams are resource-challenged and costs are tough. In that process, I would say don’t be afraid to work with FirstLine jointly to help get the right project teams, infrastructure, and process in place to manage. They’re not just an outsourcing company where the client hands over detailed specifications and they go away and build to spec; depending on your current team and resources they can also be a great supplementing resource partner to help validate whether you have the right offshoring plan in mind – appropriate staffing levels, skills, architecture, design or technology choices even.
Since partnering with First Line Software, the company is able to increase the number of clients to engage with their software. External stakeholders are impressed with the platform's user-friendliness. The team is also very knowledgeable and are able to come up innovative solutions to problems.