Jalasoft

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We help school administrators rise to the challenges of today while building the foundation for a better tomorrow. Improving efficiency, optimizing performance, and managing compliance through our suite of administrative, financial, and nutritional solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Jalasoft?

We needed help with automation building and testing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Jalasoft originally joined to help us build automation for our company from scratch. First, they came in and quickly learned about our products to come up with a plan. Within two weeks, they started showing us results and explaining where we were headed towards.

However, as we’ve acquired more companies, we’ve also required Jalasoft’s support because our demand for testing has grown. A few of the companies we’ve acquired didn’t have any QA or automation processes in place, so Jalasoft has also helped us with that, turning their involvement into a long-term partnership. Now, they’re part of our team.

What is the team composition?

QA engineers, testers, automation engineers, DevOps engineers, lead engineers, and a manager.

How did you come to work with Jalasoft?

Recommendation

What is the status of this engagement?

Late October 2020

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Jalasoft has taken our team to the next level in efficiency, scalability, and professionalism. We’ve been able to merge our resources and work together as one team towards the same goals. Their team is great at communicating opportunities for improvement and any potential risks and blockers with ongoing projects. Jalasoft has also played a huge role in innovation for not only our team but that of others within our R&D departments.

How did Jalasoft perform from a project management standpoint?

Jalasoft performs very well. They’re always timely and even ahead of schedule; they’ve always exceeded our expectations. We’ve worked with them for a long time, and they’ve consistently shown up and done their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Jalasoft’s work ethic is impressive. Additionally, I’ve been really impressed with their quality of work, communication skills, and overall presentation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re amazing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Allow Jalasoft to innovate and listen to their ideas.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My role was Senior Director, Product Engineering. One of my responsibilities was to manage the Jalasoft contract. Another was to manage software teams that included embedded Jalasoft Engineers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Jalasoft?

We needed python engineers, testers, automated testers, and React/Node stack UI engineers.

SOLUTION

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

The contract was in place before I took over.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The staff augmentation project was continuous. Our environment was a large scale agile Product Engineering shop. When I left the project, we had over 60 Jalasoft team members on teams delivering working software to production. The Jalasoft team members were involved from design through production delivery and support.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

Recruitment with Jalasoft is a world-class process. Due to their university system and their ability to train engineers in the technologies we need, is invaluable. Once a candidate has advanced through their system, they can also shadow teams and learn team nuances prior to joining. As a result, it is very rare for someone to join a team and not be a solid fit.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

Attrition rates in tech have been a huge challenge the past few years. Jalasoft was not immune to this, however, their attrition rates were lower than our own.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Jalasoft team members were considered a full member of the team. Some expectations were slightly different due to their average experience being less than my team (primarily senior engineers). Design and architecture leadership were two areas we expected less in. Even then, there were some exceptional engineers who had these capabilities too.

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

While I managed the contract, we had rates that I could brag about, alongside delivery and performance results that outpaced those rates, consistently. Their management support was strong and were invaluable to me in my role. Rate conversations felt more like a partnership than the typically painful talks we have all had with vendors.

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

Proactive cybersecurity reports would build confidence. What has been done, what’s being improved and what future steps are planned.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

PitchHub is a video marketing company, and we have a fast web app that customers can use to design their videos. We provide them the tools like scriptwriting, media management, and a professional video editing service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Jalasoft?

We wanted to build a team that can work closely within US time zones. Additionally, as part of developing a web app, we needed software Fullstack developers to focus on front- and backend development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the development, we use a PHP backend with AWB infrastructure, and JavaScript React on the frontend. For the UI design, the drawings are done in an app called Sketch, and the collaboration occurs in InVision.

What is the team composition?

Right now, we have one Fullstack developer and one UI/UX designer.

How did you come to work with Jalasoft?

Another company that had used Jalasoft’s services in the past, highly recommended them because of the way they do their certification training. Jalasoft makes sure that the people have certain levels of software development knowledge, so they can maintain and help them grow their careers. The company’s recommendation stuck to the back of my mind when we were looking around to relocate our resources that are closer to our time zone.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $20,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in June 2021 and it’s still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work has had a positive impact on our company. Because of the closer timezone, I’m able to reliably spend at least 1–2 hours a day with the developer, to accelerate and help them get them to where they can be productive. Additionally, the partnership also lets us take on tasks that are very hard to describe, so we go further than someone who doesn’t have the same time zone advantage.

Moreover, I’m able to garner more of their services for the budget, and that lets us take on bigger challenges and problems.

How did Jalasoft perform from a project management standpoint?

For the engineering and product development work, I’ve been very happy because I feel like I have top-notch people who are very hard to find in any region — they get a lot done with minimal amounts of management.

The other thing that’s worth mentioning is the management interface. I have a positive collaboration experience with the management level, especially when it comes to schedule costs, capabilities, and strategies.

For the whole project management space, we use Trello, and for the communication, we use Slack and Zoom for live meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with the management interaction we have with them. I believe that’s easy to overlook considering how important it is.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything that comes to mind.