JCommerce

Please describe your company and your position there.

As a technology director of one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in Europe, I am responsible for the product and technology in Delivery Experience area and I manage the entire team of engineers, product managers and analysts.

Over 125,000 companies sell via our platform, including the world's largest brands. We offer not only a modern platform for business, but also a number of complementary products, such as insurance or online financial services.

Our organization develops over 1000 microservices in total.

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

We take advantage of JCommerce's services to support various types of projects carried out by our development teams.

In the last few years of our cooperation, the provider's programmers have been involved in various development projects of the platform, including: creating a functionality for indicating related products, development of a mobile application with automatic tests and implementation of A/B tests for new functionalities, development and maintenance of functionalities in the area of returns of goods and maps of collection points, development of a mobile e-commerce application for iOS, creating a service that allows for mass management of offers, creating a set of microservices responsible for a development of the e-commerce platform.

New functionalities implemented with JCommerce's support help to develop platform capabilities and improve its efficiency. This way it becomes more competitive and provides a comprehensive offer for both end users and those who pursue their own sales and business goals through it.

Using partner's services allows our teams to focus on the main structures of the platform and develop new functionalities without compromising the development of strategic areas.

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

When choosing a provider, cultural compatibility was a very important aspect for us. We are a mature organization with many successful processes, so we were looking for a provider who would understand our business approach and would be ready to follow it.

We also paid attention to flexibility and agility, as all of our teams use many programming techniques and practices, such as code review, Pair Programming, TDD, DDD, CI / CD, Scrum and Kanban.

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

JCommerce's developers have been involved in several microservices and mobile projects.

Developed functionalities include, among others, an upselling microservice, with which sellers can offer complementary products, an application that supports returns of goods with a map of collection points, a service for mass product management, mobile application functionality and a set of microservices in the area of monitoring and managing the product offer.

The backend of the developed solutions is based mainly on Java 11, but we also use such programming languages as Kotlin, Groovy, Python, Scala or Spark. We give teams a lot of freedom in the selection of specific technology and tools, thanks to which the technology stack of our platform is being constantly updated with the latest solutions.

The JCommerce's team is involved at all stages of the software development cycle: from the selection of technologies and tools, through the implementation of functionality, testing, implementation, to monitoring application's functioning.

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

The cooperation started with the support of our team by several people, but currently, on the delivery side, three project teams are involved in the development of our platform.

They mainly include Java developers at different experience levels but there are also software testers, team leaders, business analysts, front-end developers, as well as iOS and Android developers.

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

The implemented projects provide tangible benefits both for the customers selling via the platform (e.g. shortening the time of placing new offers, improving the product management or upselling process) and for end customers shopping via the platform - in the form of tools for monitoring shipments, handling many payment methods in a mobile application or functionalities in the area of free returns.

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

We use many communication tools such as Slack, as well as project management tools, incl. Atlassian solutions.

Regardless of the tools used, however, the provider's teams quickly adapt to our processes, and sometimes also bring a new perspective, thanks to which the project implementation process becomes more effective.

It is especially worth paying attention to the flexibility of JCommerce's developers.

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

Our employees gave positive feedback on the cooperation and appreciate the commitment of JCommerce's developers.

This is why we decided to partially delegate project management to teams that currently make their own decisions about the methods of carrying out tasks.

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

I hope that our cooperation will keep on developing and that JCommerce will soon increase its capacity to support us in other projects.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the engineering manager at Backbase, a software company. We produce software for the banking industry and have customers all over the world. We create end-user applications that can be adopted by banks for their customers' use.

What challenge were you trying to address with JCommerce?

We’re growing extremely fast. We currently have our headquarters in Amsterdam and other R&D offices in the UK and Ukraine. As we were preparing to expand to Poland, we wanted to quickly onboard staff for our new location.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided us with the engineers who make up our a few Polish scrum development teams. Their developers work on our product in conjunction with our in-house teams in other locations. They provide fully functioning scrum team (BE, FE& QA engineers). We haven't engaged them for mobile development support yet, but I know their team offers resources in this area as well.

What is the team composition?

My team works directly with around 15 people from JCommerce. These include mentioned roles - frontend engineers, backend engineers, and QA engineers distributed across 2 scrum development teams. We also manage the engagement directly with the support of JCommerce delivery manager. Across all our departments, there are around 30–40 people from their team supporting us.

How did you come to work with JCommerce?

I found them through online research, potentially on Clutch. There were several attributes we were looking for in a partner. We wanted the company to be big enough to provide us with the support we needed while also having successful banking projects in their portfolio. In addition, we wanted the company to be accessible from Amsterdam. Based on our experience negotiating with their team and meeting some of their engineers directly, we decided to go with JCommerce over some of their competitors.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since June 2020.

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

We always measure the predictability, efficiency, and number of bugs showing up in the products we’re building. So far, our JCommerce teams have been some of the most successful based on these metrics.

How did JCommerce perform from a project management standpoint?

They've done well. We work in an agile methodology and use Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have highly skilled developers who are very good people. They’re very engaged, know what they’re doing, and are flexible in learning new things. I’m super proud of them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't imagine anything they could do to make the partnership better. The only issues have stemmed from us writing our web applications in Angular. In the Polish market, Angular developers can be hard to find which has made it difficult to hire high-quality frontend engineers. This isn’t anything JCommerce can change, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hesitate to reach out to them. I’m very happy. I’ve spoken with a lot of different companies and I've been most impressed with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I lead the newly established Development Center of mid-size European company providing software and services for financial institutions.

For what projects/services did your company hire JCommerce?

From the very beginning of building the Development Center JCommerce played significant role in accelerating the growth in both areas - R&D and Professional Services. The first initiatives moved to Poland were staffed with people coming from JCommerce. Currently JCommerce consultants participate in half of our projects.

What were your goals for this project?

Mostly acceleration of out growth in the initial months of building the operations in Poland

How did you select JCommerce?

JCommerce was selected based on the market research and feedback received from other companies located in Poland

Describe the project in detail.

As a vendor of software for financial sector we offer standard platform and implementation projects tailored to particular customer needs. The projects cover the area of Digital Banking allowing financial institutions to build versatile web and mobile applications without the need to change their core transactional systems. On top of it our platform offers integration with number of fintechs offering additional services.

What was the team composition?

There are several teams where JCommerce participates in. For each project we create interdisciplinary team 'owning' the technical part of either platform module or particular customer implementation

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

Within the first 9 months we had 2 successful go-lives of customer projects. Both on-time and with the expected scope. For both projects we have received very positive feedback not only on the product delivered, but also the cooperation between customer and our teams.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

With the model set at the very beginning (staff augmentation). We treat JCommerce consultants in the same way we treat our own employees. Simply they create one team working together on daily basis.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The creativity in finding the right profiles. Our recruitment process is very selective and both sides quickly established proper way of operations eliminating waste on interviewing candidates not matching our criteria.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only thing I can think of is bigger scale - considering our needs we'll be able to double the JCommerce team if only provided with more candidates.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder, co-owner, and COO of a tech solutions company.

What challenge were you trying to address with JCommerce?

We were looking for a Polish software development company that could help us assign a couple of developers to a project we were working on.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They've provided full-time skilled developers that we've incorporated into our team. They jump into an existing team and continue working on an existing platform. They deliver code for several different projects on a daily basis.

So far, we’ve used them as a resource partner. We also made some other offers to customers of ours. We also have customers and together we work with JCommerce as a partner. We’ve made a few proposals together for other products but we didn’t get them yet. I foresee we will do more stuff with them in the future. I can see they have the capability of delivering end-to-end projects also.

What is the team composition?

They’ve provided two senior .NET developers so far, but we’re looking to expand the team. I believe we plan to onboard a frontend developer soon.

How did you come to work with JCommerce?

I found them on Clutch and they were quick to respond when I reached out. We had the first initial talk and then a year later we started the partnership.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020 and the project is ongoing.

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

It took a few months for the two of their developers to get up and running, but after two months of work, we got really positive feedback. It’s difficult to measure their direct impact because our team is so big, but our clients are happy with their performance. They blend in well with the team and they develop good software quality.

How did JCommerce perform from a project management standpoint?

Since they’ve become integrated with our team, their developers respond to the technical details outlined in the project. Every month, they send me a report and we follow up with their delivery manager to review their performance. We recently booked quarterly follow-up calls with key stakeholders to examine their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed by their competence and company culture. They’ve provided motivated, highly-skilled, senior team members. They’re all nice and professional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re in a position where it’s a little hard for them to provide more of these good people. If they could have additional resources, that would be good. They have a hard time doing it because of the demand.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They do their best when they get the bigger responsibility. It’s best to challenge them with a big product because they can handle it.

Please describe your company and your position there.

NobleYou specializes in recruitment of high and medium level managers as well as specialists with niche competencies. I am responsible for new business development, headhunting and candidates verification.

For what projects/services did your company hire JCommerce?

We are a small company without an IT department and sometimes we need to outsource tasks that are more advanced. This time, we wanted to implement the new CRM system, including setting up the Azure cloud platform.

We decided to use cloud-based solution because of the fact that we often work remotely and due to business trips and visiting at clients; sites we need access to corporate documentation and resources from any place.

What were your goals for this project?

I use the CRM system for management of data and coordinating of business development process so I need a constant access to the system from any location.

How did you select JCommerce?

NobleYou has provided a recruitment services for JCommerce so we had already known each other.

Before we have started, we made a quick research on rates but finally, we decided to start a project with JCommerce to safe our time.

Describe the project in detail.

The project included simultaneous export of the data from existing CRM system and setting the new system installed on the Azure platform.

At the beginning, the list of functionalities and use case scenarios were prepared.

What was the team composition?

The team has consisted of Dynamics developer and cloud engineer. They carried out the whole implementation and data transfer process.

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

The system works perfectly and it fulfils its purposes. Significantly, it facilitates management of the business process and helps us to set up calls with both clients and candidates.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The implementation was carried out without our involvement but we had an insight into the progress of project all of the time.

Prior to data transfer, the CRM was tested and afterwards our databases were imported.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It was very helpful and time-effective for us to outsource the implementation of the new platform without necessity to engage in the project. .

Are there any areas for improvement?

We have not seen any difficulties related to the new CRM system as well as to the collaboration process itself.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior IT manager at a large Polish bank.

What challenge were you trying to address with JCommerce?

We’re collaborating with them in the corporate data warehouse area.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re working with BI specialists from JCommerce to develop new structures in the data warehouse. They’re also helping with fixes, changes, and maintenance.

They develop ETL processes, and they prepare mappings from source systems to the corporate data warehouse.

We introduced a new product a few years ago, and there was a need to create a new area for it in the corporate warehouse. There were many tasks related to this, many of which were executed by JCommerce’s team.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with 4–5 people from JCommerce right now, including junior and senior ETL developers. There have been periods of time when the team was composed of up to 10 people. We’ve also worked with BI architects from JCommerce.

How did you come to work with JCommerce?

They were already working with us when I joined the company in 2014. We’ve been happy with the collaboration, so we haven’t looked for other providers.

How much have you invested with them?

Their services vary between €250,000–€500,000 per year (approximately $302,632–$605,265 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The bank started working with JCommerce around 2010. They’ve been here since we created our data warehouse. We work with JCommerce on multiple projects each year.

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

The data warehouse is used daily for financial and management reporting. We need constant development and maintenance, and much of this is executed by JCommerce.

The tasks they execute are quite granular. They generally manage to deliver on time and with good quality, and implementing them to production causes no serious incidents or errors.

How did JCommerce perform from a project management standpoint?

We have one coordinator assigned on their side, who’s responsible for the communication with all the people from JCommerce that are involved in our work. He’s in contact with me and with the product owners on our side, on a daily and weekly basis. We have planning meetings every week, where we agree on what should be delivered, in which order, and on which days. We work in two-week sprints.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There’s a general lack of available talent in Poland, but JCommerce has been able to find good specialists whenever it’s necessary.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s difficult to say. I’m satisfied with the services they provide.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to establish good communication rules. Communication should be frequent and in both directions. It’s also important to establish the collaboration framework, with regular meetings, task-tracking boards, and reviews.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO in an HR company, PowerJobs. We specialize in providing temporary employees’ services as well as outsourcing and recruitment services for the industrial, manufacturing, logistics and automotive industries. My main role is to coordinate the processes of business development.

For what projects/services did your company hire JCommerce?

Due to the increasing number of offices for candidates’ services, we needed to start using an easily accessible CRM system. Previously the system has been installed on our local server but with the spread of our employees, we wanted to implement cloud solutions to ensure more flexibility and easier access to the CRM tool.

We were looking for a partner who would help us to implement the Azure environment, customize the system and integrate it with our applications for the project delivery.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal of the project was to assure high quality customer services and establish well-organized management process. An efficient data transfer process and assuring access from many locations was required.

How did you select JCommerce?

We were looking for a company with the experience in implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM on the Azure platform and with .NET competences on board. Earlier on we have had a chance to cooperate with JCommerce on some other projects, hence the choice.

Describe the project in detail.

The whole process was carried out remotely. During the first operational meeting, we have outlined our requirements and set the flow of the process. Once we have transferred our applications’ repositories, the JCommerce team configured the platform and took care of the integration.

Our internal IT department was engaged in the deployment of a new environment. In the final phase of the implementation, the provider supported us in terms of data transfer and conducted training for our employees so that they knew how to use the new system.

What was the team composition?

Two .NET developers and one Dynamics developer have been engaged in the project.

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

The new platform has met expectations of our departments. The cloud solution has improved the access to the data and simplified the management in our offices.

As the platform integrates with widely used and well-known applications, the process of implementation was quick and carried out with no issues. The biggest benefit of the project is that we gained the possibility of projects management and have now quick access to the data.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There has been a good contact with the team and delivery manager from JCommerce. They communicated ongoing progress during weekly meetings, which kept us well-informed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are highly motivated and offer more than just implementation. Through the whole process the engineers from JCommerce were working as if they were a part of our organization. Their delivery managers estimate the whole project in details, which is very helpful.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Have no idea. They make a great job.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of finance for Renta. We are a rental construction company.

What challenge were you trying to address with JCommerce?

We had been outsourcing our accounting services and wanted to start doing it internally. We needed help with software implementation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They consulted and advised us, as well as implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. They also helped integrate it with the custom software database we already had in place.

What is the team composition?

I interacted with three people: an account manager, a consultant, and the person who implemented the software. There were a couple of programmers working behind the scenes as well.

How did you come to work with JCommerce?

We considered 3-4 companies for the job. JCommerce presented the best services and had the most concrete plan. We felt that they were the right fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around €15,000 (approximately $18,000).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February until July 2020.

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

They helped us navigate the options and choose the best ones for us. They have also helped us with issues we found in the software, including doing a patch we needed due to a law change in Poland this year. We are satisfied with all the work they did.

How did JCommerce perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well. They were always prepared for the monthly meetings, explaining any deviations made from the original plan, and describing the next steps they’d be taking. We communicated via phone, email, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and in-person meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are flexible and made suggestions as to the best solutions to help us achieve our goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I saw.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let them see the broad picture of your company’s goals so they can best advise you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a service delivery manager for a medical company. I’m an employee of another company, but I’m currently rented out to this one, the one I engaged JCommerce for.

What challenge were you trying to address with JCommerce?

They’re helping me with a number of services, mostly as support specialists and consultants.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re running about four different activities with JCommerce. They have robust knowledge about databases, and most of their support is around that. We constantly create databases and need to maintain them, especially in the Eastern-Central Europe region.

The databases are mostly internal and are to do with the items the company is producing. The data is gathered from patients and medical specialists that we work with.

JCommerce hasn’t developed any original software for us. They’re working on existing tools, but they do create new reports and dashboards. We go to them for enhancements as well as support.

What is the team composition?

We have one technical lead and a service coordinator. The rest are mostly backend developers and support people, along with three frontend support people.

How did you come to work with JCommerce?

They were already in place when I came on board. What makes JCommerce different from other companies is that their staff turnover is very low, and this is something that our clients appreciate.

What is the status of this engagement?

I don’t have an exact date, but it would’ve started in June 2015 or 2016. The collaboration is ongoing.

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

We track KPIs like time of response and delivery time. JCommerce delivers on time 98% of the time and tickets that are closed late are usually because of things outside of their control. We have service review meetings every month, and they’re always positive. I don’t think I’ve ever attended a negative review.

How did JCommerce perform from a project management standpoint?

This is one of their biggest edges over competitors. The communication is on a great level, and I rarely have to wait more than 5–10 minutes to get an answer. They also volunteer to help with things outside of their contract. We use ServiceNow and Jira for project management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their responsiveness. I rarely have to wait more than 1–2 days to have a problem resolved, and they address it right away if it’s possible. JCommerce offers additional value. For example, I had to find a replacement for someone who left a project unrelated to JCommerce’s work, and they offered to train that replacement.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could work more on keeping track of their hours and creating reports.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They need to have a good working relationship with the service coordinator. JCommerce offers a single point of contact, and, if we have a good relationship with that person, they’ll be able to quickly react and help.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a big ecommerce company where we have developed most of our tech ourselves. I work as a Director on our Platform team responsible for strategy, organisation and recruitment

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

We had a need to setup a new development team for a new project. The project was to replace our current third party ERP system with a custom made system tailored for our needs.

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

We interviewed a number of different development companies and JCommerce stood out as a good partner for us. Both in terms of travel times but also tech resource availability and good infrastructure already in place.

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

We developed the project within two years using PHP Symfony framework for backend and React/Redux for frontend. The system is completely web based and hosted in google cloud. We delivered the project within time and have since then gone into further developing the system.

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

We had a pure development team of three backend developers in the beginning. On our end we had a developer/project manager/product owner who were responsible. The team has since then expanded as we found new good people to add to the team.

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

We have completely replaced our third party SAAS solution and created our own instead that is 100% integrated into the rest of the architecture. With this new system we no longer have bottlenecks in performance and can scale as much as we want. Due to this we have also added more teams to JCommerce and are now running four development teams with a total of 20 developers.

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

We have daily stand ups and a Kanban setup where deploys are being done multiple times per day. We quickly gave deployment rights to the team to not slow them down and never regretted it. We use Slack and phabricator (facebook open source ticket system) for communication. Communication is key in all of our projects. The tighter we collaborate the faster we are and the more efficient the development is.

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

We interviewed a number of different development companies and JCommerce stood out as a good partner for us. Both in terms of travel times but also tech resource availability and good infrastructure already in place. The developers we have used have all been very good technically and JCommerce is always listening to improvements we want to do in the team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are very picky with our culture. We want to make sure the developers feel like they are working with family and that they should enjoy themselves and at the same time be challenged. This can be difficult sometimes with a remote team (and also not when they are directly employed) and we have worked a lot with JCommerce to improve this even further. We have moved far from a "normal" outsourcing team but also keep working on this very important area with the help of JCommerce.