GrabIT

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We’re a big-data processing company offering Data-Blitz platform as a service. Data-Blitz focus is on the operationalization of modern data processing themes and techniques into a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model. I’m one of the architects of the product, responsible for everything that is connected to the development of the product, so I work closely with our software development teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Primarily, we used them for software development, analytics and DevOps within our product.

SOLUTION

How did you select GrabIT and what were the deciding factors?

We had worked with them in the past on smaller projects and were impressed by the quality of the work. We have not seen this level of ability at any cost anywhere in the world.

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

We embed them directly in our existing teams and they worked together. They helped us with the architecture as well, but mainly with the development of the product which was including: Web-development using JavaScript stack, DevOps based on Docker and Puppet, deployed to AWS and the whole pipeline from our platform based on Apache Kafka, Apache Storm, Couchbase, MongoDB.

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

Valentin was our first point of contact and a lead developer, but we have worked with a group of 3 developers on a project team of 15 members.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was always amazed with the work they do, as well as our other team members. They were so much into our product. Great guys, really a pleasure to work with. The customer was so pleased with the work that our 6 month engagement quickly grew in scope at the customers request.

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

They were part of our team, so the project management was handled by us. However, they were very easy to work with and greatly following the daily stand-ups as well as other standards we have established. We are a highly agile team and we have weeklong micro-sprints. One can only pull off that tight of a schedule with top tier players.

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

Their problem-solving skills, out of the box way of thinking, speed and efficacy they do the work. Also, it was astonishing how fast they understood the idea and the architecture of the product given by us, and how fast they started coming with feedback and improvement suggestions. There were a few times when we'd give basic verbal instruction on a piece of functionality and code would come back even better than we had imagined.

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

I'd like to work with them in person someday. But as far as their work, professionalism, language skills, personality and ability, I really couldn't ask for more.