KMS Technology

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO & CPO

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We build IT Financial Management software to help companies have transparency on their IT spend and maximize value.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire KMS Technology to accomplish?

• Develop new features in our flagship product
• Fix defects in a complex codebase
• Provide all testing support for our Enterprise application

SOLUTION

How did you find KMS Technology?

Referral

Why did you select KMS Technology over others?

Good value for cost, Referred to me

What was the size of KMS Technology’s team?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

KMS developed more than 10 new major features, some based on our designs and some which they developed the designs themselves. These features were delivered at high quality in public releases and included full-stack development from the database layer up to the browser and javascript work. KMS also resolved many (100+) preexisting defects in our large and complex codebase.

KMS also completed all the testing of the application -- story level testing, feature testing, smoke testing, performance testing, and regression testing. KMS developed and executed the test plans. They also built and continue to expand an automation test framework for these tests.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Few escaped defects
• On time delivery of planned scope
• Positive feedback from customers on the product

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

KMS was highly collaborative and consistently delivered their expected work on time. They were fully integrated into our sprint planning process and daily huddles but managed the work of their team members internally. They consistently delivered on their sprint commitments in alignment with our goals.

What was your primary form of communication with KMS Technology?

Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

We were impressed with their high-quality work and ability to work in a complex space. They successfully trained their own staff on our product and processes with little support from us once we got a few of their team members on board.

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

The time zone difference was the only major issue for us. Our US team is 12 hours different, so we had minimal overlap time, but KMS consistently made themselves available when we needed them. That said, it's not the same as having them available for the full workday. Occasionally we had languages challenges with accents, but this was not a major barrier and their written communication was excellent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the SVP of client success at Kibo; we provide e-commerce and order management services to our clients. We also offer e-commerce website hosting services and provide a platform for clients to build websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with KMS Technology?

We’ve engaged KMS Technology to provide us with custom software development and support. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

KMS Technology handles all the custom coding and development work for our market live platform. The platform is a single-tenant staff software application for each of our customers. Our frontend technologies include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React. They also support our backend database using MySQL and Oracle Database. 

Moreover, the team provides ongoing support to our clients who use the market live e-commerce platform. They interact directly with our customers to resolve issues. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve always had at least one project manager supporting us. We’ve had as many as 30–35 people involved at any given time, including software developers, QA managers, and database administrators.

How did you come to work with KMS Technology?

We found them through a referral. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $2 million–$3 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January 2015, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure KMS Technology’s success based on the quality of their custom software deliverables. We also measure their defect leakage, which is consistently low. They have a very low percentage of severe defects, which is good compared to the complexity of our code base. 

With regard to customer support, we measure their resolution time and customer satisfaction scores, which are excellent. They typically have a 9.5–9.8 customer satisfaction score, which is higher than the rest of our business. Their responsiveness and ability to resolve issues and communicate with our customers is outstanding. 

How did KMS Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

KMS Technology performs excellently when it comes to deadlines, communication, and budget. We use Slack and Zoom to communicate and Jira to manage development projects. The team just switched from Salesforce to Zendesk to manage the support side. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve had a positive experience overall. They’re flexible and communicative, and we’ve built an awesome relationship. They fill a lot of different needs. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

As with any outsourcing agreement, we’ve seen stretches of higher turnover, but nothing unexpected. We work with other service providers who have higher turnover rates than KMS Technology.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate your deliverables clearly. If you do your part to give them clear direction, they’ll stay on task and deliver.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of software engineering at Elsevier. I work in the nursing health education department, and I’m part of the data analytics and content team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with KMS Technology?

We’ve identified opportunities to build new products or enhance existing products within the nursing education space. That being said, we’re partnering with KMS on a couple of different projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

KMS is working with our enterprise content management team, primarily helping out with the development and testing of Java-based software. They’re also aiding our insight squad in developing student and faculty-facing dashboards. For this, they use React and Node.js for the frontend and Java for the backend. 

In both projects, they augment our internal teams with their own staff. They do take on some design tasks, but they’re generally focused on execution and implementation. 

What is the team composition?

The way we’re organized is we have product owners for each squad. These product owners are responsible for defining the features that they want to be built. We also have scrum masters or delivery managers that work with the onshore and offshore teams to build out new capabilities based on the requirements of the product owner. 

How did you come to work with KMS Technology?

KMS was already onboarded before I came in. 

How much have you invested with them?

From my perspective, we’ve invested between about $500,000–$1 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership began in 2019, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure success by the actual delivery of software and the required capabilities. We also reach out to our customers to gauge our NPS (net promoter score) and measure user satisfaction. That being said, we’ve seen our NPS go up, which means that KMS has addressed the capabilities that OUR customers need and want. In general, it’s been a very successful partnership. Their work has become a factor in the growth of our business. 

How did KMS Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They do extremely well in terms of project management. They have their own structure of support to help manage the financial aspects of the project, and they facilitate regular reviews where we talk about deliverables and plan our next efforts. 

We use Jira to manage the project and Zoom and Slack to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I find them to be very capable, and they work well with my own teams. It’s been a very positive experience working with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no recommendations for improvement at this point. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It helps to have some type of onboarding structure or onboarding team that will facilitate your partnership with KMS. A good operating model for augmenting your internal teams will also be beneficial since you’ll need to liaise and collaborate across different time zones. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief architect at UnitLeader, a venture capital group. My role involves working on most parts of the deal, including due diligence and term sheet negotiations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with KMS Technology?

We mostly invest in property technology companies with a software component or SaaS solution in the multifamily space, and we needed help testing that software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

KMS Technology does software code reviews for the companies we invest in as technical due diligence. They’ve worked on several investments with us, doing software audits; the team does the analysis, and we make a decision based on that analysis.

We have an initial call for each project about the scope, what the software is supposed to do, and what we think it should do. We also tell them the information that would be important in our decision-making process, and they take notes on everything. 

At that point, we usually make introductions to the company that KMS Technology will be working with, and they establish their own NDA. The KMS Technology team schedules interviews, talks through the documentation and challenges, and works through the roadmap of the processes and setups. 

We often have KMS Technology do a code audit; they run the code through their software to look for any issues or best practice problems. For us, the audit is about finding out the software’s quality level, whether it’s scalable, and if it’s doing anything it shouldn’t. The KMS Technology team looks out for anything from minor tweaks that could be made to critical issues with the code that we should be aware of.

Lastly, we try to get a feel of the level of effort for someone to create the software from scratch. This helps us gauge how long it would take for a potential competitor to build the software. KMS Technology estimates how many developers and how much time would be needed. 

KMS Technology usually gives us feedback within 2–4 weeks of our audit request. The results give us an overview of what we’re investing in and the software’s level of sophistication.

What is the team composition?

I interact with Leo (CEO) at the beginning of each process, and then Jeff (VP of Software Services), our main point of contact, gives us the technical breakdown at the end. They also have multiple people supporting the process, though I don’t know how many.

How did you come to work with KMS Technology?

We were originally introduced to KMS Technology through another group that we work with that’s in the M&A space, so they work with many companies that do technical due diligence. This group recommended KMS Technology to us.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. Our partnership is on a case-by-case basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

KMS Technology does a great job of giving us technical insight. Their reports have good quality, making it easy for us to understand a company’s technical qualities and get a feel for everything. 

The team can express technical information in layman’s terms and understands that we’re looking at it from a business application perspective, so they assess it that way. 

How did KMS Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good at project management; I haven’t had any problems with them. They usually send us a statement of work and solidify things via email or Zoom calls, which are our main communication mediums. When I ping them, they usually respond within minutes.

They always meet the timeline, even when it’s tight. We don’t typically give them a heads up because when we get a term sheet accepted, we have around 30–45 days to do an analysis. KMS Technology usually has to work within a tight window, and they’ve been able to do it each time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality and depth of KMS Technology’s reviews have been super helpful not only to us but to the companies that we invest in. They get right into the source code and give line-specific feedback. From what I understand, their level of review isn’t the norm within the space.

The fact that they write code themselves and audits are not their sole source of revenue gives them a differentiator in the market. Even though I haven’t used any other company, we like KMS Technology, and we’ve never needed to try another group.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been one or two opportunities when we’ve had to reach out to them for an update. This has only happened a couple of times, though, and they’ve immediately responded, so it’s a very minor issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear on what you’re going to get out of the engagement with KMS Technology. For us, we understand why we’re doing the process and what the team is consulting with us on, which makes it easy to set up the scope — they tell us what they’ll do, and we create a statement of work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of engineering at EditShare, a firm in the media and entertainment space. I manage about 50 employees and 20 contractors. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with KMS Technology?

We were trying to scale up our development bandwidth cost-effectively. We needed a team that we could hire and train and then rely on to work on features and bugs independently. So, we hired ​​KMS Technology to provide experienced teammates to augment our in-house development team. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the first project with KMS Technology, we interviewed their architect, a manager, and an analyst for our storage system development. They were a good fit for our technology, product, and company, so we brought them on. Once those teammates settled in, they brought in QA and development teammates from ​​KMS Technology that they determined were qualified for our needs. 

We met with the team to do a knowledge transfer on the product we needed assistance developing, onboarding them as if they were in-house teammates. Then, we provided them with bugs to fix of increasing complexity and added in feature development as they proved their competency. Once we were confident in the first team, we brought on a second to work on our media asset management program — KMS Technology covered our entire product. 

Eventually, we decided that we should extend our firm’s coverage to the Asia-Pacific region because we had such a large development team working in Asia through KMS Technology. We ended up bringing on five support teammates from KMS Technology to work in the time zones we needed to cover — those teammates have triaged and addressed customer issues. Essentially, we've built a new corporate engineering headquarters in Vietnam because of KMS Technology's resources. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 25 teammates from KMS Technology. 

How did you come to work with KMS Technology?

I worked with several offshore teams 15–20 years ago, including the precursor to KMS Technology. I knew Josh (Founder) from that work, and when I needed offshore engineering support, I contacted him. I weighed KMS Technology against several offshore and nearshore development teammates, but KMS Technology ended up being the best balance of cost and effectiveness. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested $3–$5 million with KMS Technology over the last two years. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with KMS Technology began in August 2019, and it's ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

KMS Technology's team is coming along nicely, and soon they'll be indistinguishable from our in-house team. In general, KMS Technology is handling 80%–90% of our development cases in the Asia-Pacific region — their issue resolution times are consistent with the rest of our support team. Their development velocity, which is our measure of complexity and implementation, has grown from 0 to 30. Their team is consistently at 30 velocity points and can be relied upon to deliver according to our development intervals. KMS Technology always delivers what we need — their team has never blocked a product release.

Additionally, KMS Technology's work quality has also improved throughout the partnership. Our in-house team provides regular feedback on their source code — the amount of feedback KMS Technology receives has decreased as they've learned our product. Their team is self-sufficient, so our in-house team is now just rubber-stamping their work because it's consistently very high quality. 

How did KMS Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

KMS Technology has better project management than any of our in-house teams. I model a lot of my in-house team's development processes on KMS Technology. Typically, written communication is the best way to discuss projects with KMS Technology, so we use Slack and email. When we communicate through the phone, it can be difficult because of the language barrier. Their team accommodates our workflows, scheduling meetings according to our time zone and working late to attend sprint ceremonies. Honestly, the time zone difference is the biggest communication hurdle with KMS Technology. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've evaluated a lot of large development shops, but the fact that KMS Technology offers complete resource teams has really made them stand out. They function as a team and work from higher-level directions without needing daily management from our in-house team. Overall, KMS Technology requires less oversight than other firms. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We occasionally have staffing challenges with KMS Technology because they have difficulty retaining resources — they often hire younger team members who leave after gaining experience. However, KMS Technology does their best to mitigate the impact of the staffing changes.

Additionally, the KMS Technology team's breadth of knowledge is relatively limited. They're always using the latest technology, making it challenging to find resources to work in C++ because it's not widely taught in the region. We're usually limited in the resources we can use from KMS Technology because not as many teammates have the development skills we need. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd advise customers to invest time in selecting the proper architect and manager and then slowly provide them with more autonomy as the project progresses. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder of (a/an) Real estate

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

SAAS company focusing on customer and employee feedback for the real estate industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire KMS Technology to accomplish?

• Identify opportunities in code base
• Identify strengths and weakness in technology infrastructure
• Open source scan of code base

SOLUTION

How did you find KMS Technology?

Referral

Why did you select KMS Technology over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

What was the size of KMS Technology’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

KMS interviewed and analyzed information provided to them to evaluate the tech stack, infrastructure, security protocols, and open source code base. Key deliverables included summary reports with recommendations and line by line open source code base analysis for use as seller side due diligence.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Cost to Value
• Priority Based Recommendations
• Short Turn Around Time

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

KMS scoped out the project, provided feedback based on prior experience, delivered report on time within an acceptable timeframe. Response to questions and communications was always prompt and thorough.

What was your primary form of communication with KMS Technology?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email
• Messaging App

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

Small, boutique and the willingness to help and answer questions. They're reliable and experts in what they do. 

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

Nothing. They provided a wonderful experience.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an Executive of Activated Insights

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Activated Insights helps senior care providers collect feedback from their employees and residents to improve and build their brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire KMS Technology to accomplish?

• Due diligence - tech assessment report

SOLUTION

How did you find KMS Technology?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select KMS Technology over others?

Referred to me

What was the size of KMS Technology’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We engaged KMS to prepare our engineering and product teams for a potential sale process, including assessing the current state of technology, team, and process readiness; and recommending documentation and positioning updates.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

KMS deliverables included:

• Recommendations regarding updates or creation of technical and product documentation
• Verbal coaching in preparation of diligence meetings (this is not a written deliverable)
• Technical short and long-term recommendations
• Detailed Technical Assessment Report (Word formatted) with details on findings and recommendations found in the Static Code Scan

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

KMS Technology was very professional and responsive - they helped us prepare for the sale of our company in a thorough and thoughtful way. Highly recommend!

What was your primary form of communication with KMS Technology?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Pattern recognition across other tech company stacks

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

Nothing to improve