Ingemark

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Mercator S is grocery retail company and my position is Head of sector for e-commerce, organic nad premium formats of sales.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Ingemark implemented separate retail and wholesale eCommerce sites for Mercator-S. The goal was to have a solution that will be coordinated with our system, one one hand, and on the other, to satisfy needs of our customers.

SOLUTION

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

Ingemar is the company that works trought out our regional company.

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

Ingemark implemented separate retail and wholesale eCommerce sites for Mercator-S. Both are based on similar solutions previously deployed with our sister companies in other countries of the region. Ingemark is in charge of the back-end and web front-end applications, both of which were developed using Ruby on Rails.

Both sites were delivered in a similar manner: we started with join analysis of our requirements and the gap analysis to identify differences between the solution they had deployed in our sister companies and our specific requirements. They did the necessary adjustments, which we tested on a separate environment, and deployed to the hosting company of our choice.

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

They had a project manager which was our main point of contact. He coordinated the rest of their team, which consisted of one software architect and 5 developers during the initial implementation. For any changes we request post-launch, there is also a UX/UI designer involve

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Most important part was in immidiate response on any issue or development that we need. Full support on any occasion.

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

With the project manager as main point of contact, ease of communication was constant. All issues/ideas were easily delivered.

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

The team is very unique and we are impressed with their dedication to their clients.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not the ones connected with Ingemark.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Dexcom is a medical devices company. We manufacture continuous glucose monitors for patients with diabetes. Traditionally, these have been used for insulin-intensive therapy for type 1 diabetes. We’re expanding globally and into other markets, including type 2 diabetes.

We’re a $2-billion-revenue company, and we operate globally. We’re headquartered in San Diego with 8,000 employees altogether, half of them in manufacturing.

We’re a hybrid medical devices and software and data company. I’m the senior director of IT platforms and customer-facing applications. I’m responsible for most of our technology stack, including databases and CRM, tech-support, and e-commerce application integrations.

I was responsible for all applications at the time of hiring Ingemark, but the company’s grown since then, so we've split applications into more traditional lines. Customer-facing employees report to me, while back-office applications like finance, supply chain, and manufacturing report to a similar IT director. Both of us report to the CIO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingemark?

When we started implementing our technology stack, there was an enterprise service bus at the core. We decided early on that we needed a proper data streaming microservices architecture for the use cases in support of the business, and not a traditional IT integration platform.

Once we decided that Kafka Streams was the correct technology choice, we faced some challenges in getting top talent. We’d chosen a platform that was used by so many other companies in similar positions to us. We were competing for resources not with other medical devices companies, but with ones like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We could make a higher offer to a level-four Kafka engineer, but they’d still choose to go to a better-known company. Unless they had diabetes, the average person had likely never heard of us.

We decided that we needed to build a strong partnership with managed service providers or consulting firms, to augment staff at least while we were building the organization and internal capabilities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ingemark integrated into several of my teams. Originally, they were an integral part of the architecture engineering of our core platform. We expanded the engagement with an e-commerce and DevSecOps team.

What is the team composition?

We have 3–4 architects and engineers from Ingemark working on integration, three people working on e-commerce, and at least two DevSecOps people. We might be adding more to the latter group.

We have both account and project managers on Ingemark’s side. Each team has a lead architect or engineer, there’s a business development person assigned to our account. I’ve also dealt with the company’s principal. They’re all integrated fully into our group, and are simply working from a different time zone and geography.

How did you come to work with Ingemark?

It was just a lucky circumstance. I’m originally from the former Yugoslavia, which Croatia used to be a part of, so I speak the language. I also have friends in the business in South-Eastern Europe and former Yugoslavia.

I knew Ingemark by reputation. Once we decided on Kafka as a platform and identified resourcing as a platform, I reached out to them and a number of contacts in my network. We were looking at Poland, Croatia, Hungary, and Ukraine, and we were starting to look at Serbia, but it’s not a part of the EU.

Based on their reputation and references, we whittled it down very quickly to Ingemark.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of the initial engagement is under $500,000. Looking forward, we’ll spend north of $1 million in 2021 on Ingemark’s services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Ingemark in September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The systems Ingemark helped us integrate and process all our transactions: the selling, shipping, and billing of all products outside of the US.

Before the implementation of our current technology and the services around it, we had daily and hourly problems with system stability. We haven’t had any outages on the integration platform for the past year, and the couple of problems we’ve had didn’t disrupt our business services. We would take down the affected or condemned nodes without anyone noticing that there was a problem behind the scenes.

How did Ingemark perform from a project management standpoint?

Ingemark fits in really well into our team. We’re beating every standard metric. Ingemark plugs into our framework very well, and they work well within it. We asked them for pure architecture and engineering help, and they’ve more than satisfied that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We like to joke about the fact that PhD is the lowest ranking in their team. Ingemark’s entire team is top notch, from the most junior person to the principals.

We’re taking advantage of the fact that there are only a few consulting and managed service shops working at this level in smaller countries like Croatia, Serbia, or Lithuania. They have a steady pipeline of top talent, and that definitely sets them apart.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing rises to the level of concern. It might not be something that Ingemark wants to do, but it would be good for us if they had a broader service base.

They’re highly specialized in custom development, and they can do anything related to Java, Kafka, and e-commerce, but they don’t offer services for off-the-shelf software. That probably doesn’t make sense for them to do business-wise, but it would be great if they could be more of a one-stop-shop.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

With any engagement like this one, an in-person onboarding process is the most important part. It ensures that the team is onboarded into the systems, processes, and culture quickly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Director of Software Development for a financial services firm

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had vision to refactor current high volume transaction service from batch to realtime mode. In this case we had technology chosen but without tanigible experience with it. Goal of this PoC was to evaluate and prepare technology for wide usage in Bank's projects and teams.

SOLUTION

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

Deciding factor to choose Ingemark was previous experience with such integration projects. Because PoC was really important to prepare in reasonable time we choose proven vendor with lot of integration experts and experience.

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

Ingemark designed and prepared solution design and document for two use cases wanted from Banks side. Project was finished in two phases, first phase was preparing solution design and second evaluation of delivered with Ververica (founder of Flink) and refactored according to recommendation. Output was testable and deployable source code.

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

There were 4 people in total, two solution architects and from our side developer and manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Outcome of PoC was prepared "template" for future development
• PoC services that managed to process high volume of data in short period. (25k messages per second)
• Outcome of PoC was confirmation of Flink as technology for streaming.

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

Management was fairly simple with predefined tasks and expectations. Tasks were simple and were executing in parallel from both sides. Colaboration tolls used were MS Teams, Confluence, Jira, e-mail.

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

They provided clear communication, excellent execution, and amazing competence in the software integration field.

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

Not really. We did all as agreed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a board member of mStart, part of the Agrokor conglomerate. We primarily provide IT services and support to companies within the conglomerate, acting as a centralized IT department. Additionally, we provide those same services to the market, to companies outside of Agrokor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ingemark?

We often outsource software development, and Ingemark is our first-choice to fulfill our needs. They provided software development for numerous projects.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to find a reliable software development partner who understood our business (and the business of the entire group) well enough to implement solutions. We also hoped they would help envision and define solutions too.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Several companies in our group had worked with Ingemark before mStart was founded. When we were set the task of centralizing IT resources, we naturally looked toward companies we already had a history with. Over time, as Ingemark repeatedly proved themselves as a reliable partner, our relationship strengthened.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We often look to Ingemark for custom software development. Our analysts and consultants will work with our clients to define and document business requirements and propose technical solutions, while Ingemark provides software architects and developers, managed by our project managers. They utilize a lean development approach and DevOps practices including continuous integration, testing, and delivery.

What was the team composition?

Ingemark provides software architects and developers. For UX/UI design, we’ll either look toward Ingemark or another 3rd party.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Ingemark’s development support allows to forgo hiring an in-house development team, saving us important funds. They’re reliable and let us lean on them.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We handle project management on our side, since software development is usually a single aspect of a larger project, but Ingemark provides us with a software lead. Our project managers work closely with and consult Ingemark’s architects to develop solutions. This approach has worked well for us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They balance pragmatism with innovation well, expending significant effort to stay up to date with the latest technologies but always implementing the most rational option. They don’t get swept away on the newest craze. Although we’re an IT company, we’re not development focused. Ingemark raises our awareness of the latest software development practices.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, nothing specific comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

As a nonprofit, we use our organization's global standards to identify products, locations, and services. I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingemark?

After failed attempts at developing an electronic catalog in-house, we decided to outsource the project to an experienced software developer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Using the data network maintained by our organization’s global office, Ingemark developed an electronic catalog that lists product data for retailers and suppliers. Per our requirements, they optimized the platform for UX, stability, and compatibility with multiple operating systems. The multi-lingual software is connected to approximately 40 data pools, and it has more than 1,000 attribute tags. Since launching the catalog, they continue to provide regular maintenance and support. They are also working on APIs in preparation for our upcoming data expansion. 

What is the team composition?

Their CEO serves as our main point of contact, but we also interact with their CTO for more technical tasks. The development team fluctuated, but at least seven people were working on our account. Post-launch, they assembled a group to assist our support team in case of emergencies.

How did you come to work with Ingemark?

I received a referral from someone within our network who had success with them in the past. After three satisfactory meetings, we decided to hire Ingemark for the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our contract dates back to September 2015, but the overall collaboration started earlier. The partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The catalog has become an essential tool for product regulation in several regions and industries. Ingemark delivered incredible results in a relatively short time frame, in addition to yielding a high ROI.

How did Ingemark perform from a project management standpoint?

We meet before each development stage to discuss the timeline and project goals. Ingemark abides by our three-phase system, in which they send deliverables to us periodically for a comprehensive quality assessment. Their team has access to our internal project management software to track and respond to our requests for edits. They always have someone available to assist us. While many of our projects with other vendors have been delayed due to staff changes, Ingemark has an efficient staff renewal process that never impacts our workflow.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ingemark has become an extension of our team. We have an exhaustive list of special requirements, but they accommodate our needs without frustration. Their team is comprised of many experienced programmers, but they continue to educate themselves on how to improve their services for our benefit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They are extremely proactive in finding new approaches to business.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having an incomplete vision will make the onboarding process difficult for both parties. We also don’t recommend hiding the programmers from the end-user, which tends to create miscommunication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager and the major owner of Megatrend Redok, a company that provides electronic document interchange (EDI) services. We connect businesses and make it possible for companies to interchange data without paper.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingemark?

We needed a vendor to develop a cost-effective, open-source EDI platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our first EDI platform using Java and Linux. The team built the database with Sybase; but we may switch to AWS. Ingemark continues to provide support and develop new functionalities.

What is the team composition?

We interact with the project manager. The developers work behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Ingemark?

We researched platform development agencies chose Ingemark, partially due to the team’s proximity to our office.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent €400,000 (approximately $452,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2009 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

End clients have increased efficiency. Specifically, our retail customers have decreased the number of employees needed for purchasing, goods acceptance, and supply chain processes.

How did Ingemark perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is responsive and organized. Their timeliness and strong documentation benefit the engagement. Both sides have project managers, which helps facilitate our good working relationship. We have regular meetings and use a ticketing tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team thinks in the long-term, especially when we ideate new coding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We’re satisfied with the quality of the work and the communication between teams.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ingemark has a solution for any challenge.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT manager of a mid-sized Croatian bank, in charge of delivering business solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingemark?

We had an outdated banking system that needed various integrations. It wasn’t in line with our expectations, so we started looking for a development partner with expertise in connecting multiple systems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed native Java applications that ran on our web servers. The communication between the applications was orchestrated through our IBM MQ solution, and their role was to capture information and process code. The project itself was a large endeavor to be used for mobile and internet banking. The project ran for a couple of years, and we were in production with the first few batches of features, but it never went commercially live due to various strategic reasons. We went live for friends and family in Croatia. 

What is the team composition?

It was an augmentation exercise. We had two people working for us full-time—one software developer and one software architect—with assistance from their architects and organizational unit. There was a proper IT architect on their side advising us on how to progress with the development.

How did you come to work with Ingemark?

One of our colleagues had a past experience with them and recommended their integration expertise. We reached out to them, they participated in our tender, and they won it.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2015 and the engagement concluded in June 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ingemark went above and beyond in terms of quality and their work was instructive for our own development team. Producing code is one thing, but producing quality code with proper documentation, which can be used and reused, is something we learned from them. After this engagement concluded, we took over the code and were able to reuse it without significant intervention from Ingemark. It was a great opportunity and an outsourcing success.

Their work allowed us to catch some tricky deadlines within a multinational strategic project in our bank. It didn’t reach full commercialization because of political and strategic reasons, so there were no measurable business benefits from the engagement. However, our collaboration is continuing, and we’re expecting to see some real financial benefits from our next project with them.

How did Ingemark perform from a project management standpoint?

We were hoping to run an agile methodology, but we ended up with a mix of agile and waterfall on the direction of our parent company, who managed the project. We had a local and a group project manager, and we directly managed the team by Ingemark and tracked tasks and bugs. They were meticulous in their efforts. They really strove to push and deliver more, and they worked additional hours just to help our project and team succeed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a collection of very sophisticated engineers, and their team members excel in terms of architecture and modern approaches to building applications. I’ve been in contact with a lot of developers, software companies, and new-age startups in my line of work, but I’ve rarely seen the consistency, quality of communication, and suggested solutions that Ingemark provided. Nobody’s come close to them in terms of quality and modern design.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m satisfied with their work on this project.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Ask for a proof of concept. This is something that Ingemark excels in.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Konzum is the biggest retailer in Croatia, with 25% of the market share. I’m the director of our online shop for food and groceries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingemark?

In 2006, we put more emphasis on our online business and started collaborating with Ingemark. They’re our long-term partner for online business services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We launched two platforms at the beginning of our collaboration and are in the process of implementing a third. They provide mobile and web app development for us using the Spree Commerce CMS and Ruby on Rails.

We’ve gone through a couple of iterations and changed the design as the old functionality or informatics became outdated. Each time we do, we discuss new technologies and our future business goals. They recently suggested we switch to an open-source platform, which is the current project with them.

What is the team composition?

Depending on the project, we’ve worked with different project managers. We currently work with one dedicated person from their team.

How did you come to work with Ingemark?

We put out a request for services, and they applied. They worked with another part of our business group previously, so they had good references. We decided to give them a try and have been satisfied with their work ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

It’s close to €5 million in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2006 and have collaborated since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the main reasons we continue to work with them is their reaction and deployment speed. We need a dynamic environment, especially in our industry. They provide everything we need and are always open to communication. We never have to wait for them and get immediate responses and time estimates whenever we need them. I really want to commend them for that.

How did Ingemark perform from a project management standpoint?

We have different lines of communication with them, but mostly interact through project management software and phone. They meet or beat all of our deadlines on almost every project and solve minor issues or bugs quickly. Even with the most rigorous testing, there will always be scenarios we can’t cover. I have absolutely no complaints about their ability to handle our projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a lot of strengths; chief among them are their availability and the quality of their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t had any bad experiences with them. They always fix problems before handing the deliverables over to us.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re very knowledgeable in their areas of expertise. Be open to talk with them and get their suggestions for new initiatives. They’re very proactive and have good ideas for improvements.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder at CloudSense, a company focused on Salesforce technologies. We provide our own products on the Salesforce platform that configure price quotes, order management, and e-commerce. Our most essential tools enable VR companies to sell their digital space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingemark?

We needed to outsource some of our development work to facilitate information flow between our platform and the ad server.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We used their knowledge of Java programming and Node.js in three projects. One project was an integration between our products, which reside in Salesforce and the Google DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) server. Once we had better information flow, we can see how the ads affect our sales.

The second solution they helped with was middleware that would enable businesses to create highly configurable shops within the Salesforce environment. We wanted something that could act as a standard data object model for accounts, opportunities, and products.

The third project they helped with was a testing automation framework. We wanted to enable release retesting in an efficient way. We asked them to build a concept, which they did using Java and Selenium.

What is the team composition?

For the first project, we used two resources for about a year. For the second, there were up to four, and the testing and automation framework involved their CTO and one other resource for three months.

How did you come to work with Ingemark?

The Croatian IT market is small, so some of our employees worked with them on previous projects. As we worked together, our mutual trust grew. The owner and CEO is a good colleague, and we still chat casually every few weeks.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $330,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April 2017–March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We really appreciate their expertise in generic technologies, solution design, and AWS. Their principals have deep technical backgrounds and are known for their thoroughness. We haven’t had any big issues they weren’t able to fix right away, and their resources fulfilled their roles within our team very well. Their work was innovative and met all of our expectations.

We had very little experience in creating test frameworks for our products. They set up the foundation of those tests for us, and we use their work to scale our automated testing. They really pushed us forward and provided tools that were beyond our area of expertise.

How did Ingemark perform from a project management standpoint?

We had no problems with their project management. They’re very professional, and were embedded into our internal team. They spent a significant time in our offices and behaved as a normal employee.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their solution designs are very good, and they have extensive knowledge of Java, AWS, and different frameworks in JavaScript.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As with any IT company, the desire for the best possible resources is high. They often offered great resources, and always met or exceeded industry standards.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s really easy to work with them, and they’re ready to prove their worth. They offered us the first few weeks with them as a free trial, and always listened to what we told them. If you’re looking for anything related to generic IT technologies, they have the expertise you’re looking for and are very adaptable.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the business development director for Hrvatsky Telekom, a Croatian telecom operator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingemark?

We recently entered the line of electronic data interchange (EDI), and EU regulations require that all government partners use digital invoicing and document exchange next year. We needed a partner to help develop a platform to manage this workload.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ingemark developed the entire platform, ensuring that it adheres to all EU rules and obligations. It follows predefined standards, connecting from one service provider to another in Croatia and from customer ERPs to web portals where customers can upload and download documents instantly. The platform has numerous types of interfaces for several types of documents, and it also archives documents for one year. Ingemark currently maintains the platform, and we have plans to implement document management, long-term market avenues, and other features.

What is the team composition?

I interact with the project manager.

How did you come to work with Ingemark?

We issued an RFP, and Ingemark won the tender.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since May 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform has launched commercially, and we’re currently connecting customers on it. We’re satisfied with how it works; there haven’t been any bugs or error reports. It’s functioned flawlessly so far. I’ve already recommended Ingemark to our internal IT department.

How did Ingemark perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re reliable and deliver on what they promise. We communicate with them through Microsoft Project, email, phone, and live status meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a deep knowledge of the financial/document management field and apply it expertly to our project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.