Murano Software

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My business is a marketing company for colleges and universities. I'm the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Murano Software?

I joined the company when they needed to evolve their IT systems. We mainly do lead generations for schools. When I joined, the system needed to be restarted up to four times a day. We needed to build a new solution from the ground up.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us build a digital marketing platform. We're continually adding capabilities and features and improving efficiency. The core platform is built on a .NET framework. Database technologies include SQL, MongoDB, Redis as a caching system, and Elastic Search across the products that sit on the platform. When we started, all of our sites were fully built on Microsoft, but we've switched to Linux Apache.

One of the hallmarks of our platform is the ease and speed of integrations without much development work. Most of our income comes from integrations with client systems and third-party data partners.

What is the team composition?

The team started with four people and has grown as large as ten. Our current team is back to four. We can add members in or remove them fairly easily. Since this is primarily a staff augmentation model, our main point of contact is a technical team lead. He connects with the rest of his team to assign work.

How did you come to work with Murano Software?

I've worked with them at other companies. I never had a question about who I would work with.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $500,000 a year on their services. Across the whole collaboration, we've spent $4.5 million-$5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

I reached out to them in December 2010. By the end of the month, we had a team of four. Two of those team members still work with us, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we started, we stood up our first lead generating product within about three months. We were very impressed and pleased with the speed they helped us deliver that. Within a year, we started migrating our entire client base from our old system to the new platform. They ship something useful each week, and we constantly put new capabilities into use almost immediately.

How did Murano Software perform from a project management standpoint?

My technical team lead does very well. We communicate primarily in Slack, and we use TargetProcess for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team shares my work ethic and philosophy, and they leave code better than they find it. They meet all our parameters of weekly deliveries and test-driven development, and all the team members we take on work well within our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't have any improvements to recommend.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend all your effort early on to find a team lead with all the skills and values you want. Have that individual work with Murano's HR department to add new people to the team. That will make recruitment and onboarding so much easier as you scale the team size.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Appulate is a platform that connects insurance agents and carriers through one system. I'm a project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Murano Software?

We hired them for software development. 

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to build a comprehensive web-based platform that served the needs of commercial insurance players. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We chose them because of their excellent reputation. 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They provided software engineering resources. 

What was the team composition?

More than 100 engineers were involved. The team grew over the years. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our revenue has steadily increased, and the use of the platform has skyrocketed.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We managed the project using Slack, Wrike, Google Hangouts, and GitHub. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're an outstanding team. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, everything was great.