IT Touch

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a service delivery manager for an IT company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Touch? 

We worked with IT Touch to deliver software development and support services to our crucial customers across various industries but mainly in the financial sector.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In our last project with IT Touch, we provided development services for a prominent bank in Poland. We were the contractor, and IT Touch was our subcontractor. The software they developed was used by the bank to generate financial reports. It was important for us to carry out this project in line with our timeline, which was defined by the bank — it was crucial to do everything on time. We’ve also had other projects for our customers in our region.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 5–10 developers. 

How did you come to work with IT Touch?

One of our directors had some experience working with IT Touch, so we asked them for a proposal when we were looking for subcontractors for this project. In the end, their proposal was the best among the others we’ve received. 

How much have you invested with them?

The total value of this specific project was $250,000. However, our total turnover with IT Touch has been around $350,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project had three stages and lasted from January 2020–January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measured success by checking if all tasks were delivered on time. The quality of the software was also very important for us. Overall, our customers gave great feedback on the software. IT Touch gained our trust, and they showed the ability to handle difficult projects, which was very important for us. Their flexibility and quality of work were top factors in this engagement’s success. As a result, we’ll continue working with them this year and in the future. 

How did IT Touch perform from a project management standpoint?

This project was managed using the sprint methodology. IT Touch also delivered post-documentation after the project, and they were able to deliver services according to requirements. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility was their biggest differentiator. They met all customer requirements and gathered the right software developers for their team. It wasn’t easy to define customer requirements in the first stage of the engagement, but they were able to engage the correct people to do the work. On top of that, they delivered services in a timely and proper manner. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The cost was important for us, so we expected flexibility in this area. This was sometimes an issue. That being said, their work was of high quality even if their price wasn’t low.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a mix and mobile Polish telecommunications operator employing over 2,000 employees. We serve over 1 million customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Touch?

We employ ITTouch for various projects ranging from web applications to the integration layer.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals of the project were to simplify the bidding and sales process in the B2C customer segment and to bring these processes from old legacy system to light web applications.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The supplier was selected by tender.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The supplier implemented the project from the scratch. He supported us in specifying the requirements, advised in the selection of technology, completed the full implementation including integration of external systems, building the system API and comprehensive testing.

What was the team composition?

The supplier team consisted of 6-8 people including the project manager, who was a single point of contact for us. Most of the team worked remotely. The project was implemented using waterfall methodology.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This solution is constantly used and instinctively developed, which is the best addition that its implementation was a very good decision. Thanks to it, B2C significantly reduced the time of bidding, entering contracts and the level of errors in these processes. It was the first project with this company and it was so successful that we have been successfully cooperating to this day.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was the third approach to this project and it was only successfully achieved with ITTouch. Both project management and project communication were very good. Thanks to the MSProject, JIRA, Confluence and SVN tools, we managed to run the project effectively.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Flexibility, high level of technological and organizational competence as well as a customer-oriented approach.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Little things in the scope of documenting the project and the solution itself.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the deputy IT director of the company, responsible for project management and architecture for the third line of service and business systems. TVN is one of the biggest Polish television companies. We’ve been part of Discovery, Inc. for two years and we’re responsible for around 20 channels. We also sell TV advertising for about 50 channels. We basically earn our revenue through TV and online advertising. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Touch?

We needed to develop a custom solution and were looking for the right vendor for the job.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our first project started around 2015 with the goal of creating a new system for creating purchase orders and invoices. We wanted to save money by creating synergies with SAP. We didn’t want to buy around 300 licenses, so we built our own custom solution with IT Touch. They created our very own ecosystem including a materials module, a cost/product acceptance module, and support for capital expenditure limits management. We have very strict rules for starting new projects, and we have to manage capital expenditure and operating expenditure limits, so the new system would be very helpful for people on the financial end.

It was our first experience of this kind, and the system was built within 6–9 months. We had technical readiness in eight months for purchase orders and invoice modules, but stabilization and the first user acceptance tests were finished about nine months from starting the project. We spent around 2,000 working days on the project and the main part took around 200 days. The rest consisted of changes and updates, and the system is still live. Thanks to IT Touch using jBPM for the system, we can further develop it without any regression. That’s very important to us, given that it deals with financials and we can’t have any mistakes or errors.  

We started a very interesting project with IT Touch after that, with the objective of changing our integration bus. We had and still have a Microsoft BizTalk server solution, but that wasn’t good for us because there was a lack of specialists that could work in that technology. The solution wasn’t flexible enough for our needs, so we made an internal evaluation and decided to move away from BizTalk.

The project started around two years ago and it’s been progressing slowly since it’s a kind of migration. Our goal is to change the integration bus—which is the backbone of our IT architecture—without any impact on the business. At this moment, we have two integration buses, and thanks to IT Touch, we’re changing 1–2 interfaces each month. At this moment, we’ve migrated around 50 interfaces and we plan to finish the project in 2020. We have another 35 interfaces to migrate and we’ve spent around 1,000 working days on this project during its two-year runtime.

What is the team composition?

We’re working directly with their project managers who have strong technical backgrounds and programming skills. The process is very effective and it takes a short amount of time to go from business ideas to development. IT Touch works remotely with us using a waterfall model, which is better suited to Polish conditions than Agile or Scrum. The vendor is very flexible in this sense.

How did you come to work with IT Touch?

We’ve worked with many companies and chose IT Touch for their expertise in Java, jBPM, and other similar technologies.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with IT Touch in 2015 and the collaboration is ongoing. Our custom solutions still need minimal development, especially for new modules. We sometimes use IT Touch’s specialists as technical partners to consult on what changes we should make to our architecture.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sometimes, I think they do much more than what we’ve contracted them for. When we don’t provide all the information they need, IT Touch will come to us and ask questions in order to gather information, which isn’t really their responsibility.

How did IT Touch perform from a project management standpoint?

IT Touch is a very proactive vendor. We’ve had difficulties working with other companies, which weren’t as proactive, from my perspective. Communication is minimal, though. We just talk about the scope of the project and the initial conditions. Most projects are fixed-price, which is very important for us because we know that the work will be delivered within the time and price expressed in the contract. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We can rely on them and working together is comfortable for us. We know that everything will be delivered on time. Additionally, our business people are from the media environment, which means that we’re not sure about what they want sometimes. This can lead to implementing many changes during development. Thanks to IT Touch’s flexible project managers and developers, we’re able to do a lot of projects with great success, and they’ve always delivered projects on time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything in mind that they should improve. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

We’ve always been able to rely on each other during these five years of collaboration. We know that, if they manage a project’s development, it will be delivered. This is very, very important for us. There are no excuses or comments about things being too difficult.