OBLSK LLC

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m chief of staff for a division of a financial intelligence firm that focuses on data and research for financial services professionals in banking, investment, and wealth management.

What challenge were you trying to address with 42 Apex?

We had multiple legacy products that needed modernized.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with 42 Apex on three custom software development projects. They rebuilt a website in Ruby on Rails. They developed backend projects to update two factories, one for data processing and one for calculation. They managed work with AWS and moved us off of FoxPro to .NET.

What is the team composition?

My main contact has always been the CEO and owner. The teams depended on the project. The website rebuild had up to 10 people working on it. The other projects had between two and five people on them.

How did you come to work with 42 Apex?

I had a prior relationship with them as I had worked with the two partners previously at another company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $800,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project we worked on started in 2014 and the relationship is ongoing.

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

We've definitely had significant cost savings in the business. In supporting old software, we were paying a lot for licensing and support fees. We were able to move out of on-premise data centers which saved on real estate and utility costs. We were able to reduce our hardware by scaling up to more modern servers, especially those in the cloud. We were able to downsize our operations team a bit. We saved man hours and people costs by being able to streamline and be more efficient.

How did 42 Apex perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via phone and email. We also use Basecamp and Pivotal. They had daily stand-ups with the teams when needed and weekly meetings otherwise. I've never had a problem getting a hold of them.

In some cases, they were able to work independently. On other projects, they worked side by side with our team. They deliver what they say they're going to deliver and on time. With large projects, there is always a lot of give-and-take to adjust the scope—but I've been impressed with their ability to scope and tackle problems.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think it's their advice on how to modernize and implement new technologies to solve the problem. They're very good at listening to what the issue is and tuning in to things that perhaps we, as an organization, didn't really think about.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I wouldn't say so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hire them—and be realistic about your expectations going into it. Some products can be large and development timelines long. It’s easy for the scope to change. There’s a particular risk when working on legacy products. It can require thinking differently, not just rebuilding what already exists. There's a tendency, especially where a workflow is involved, to want to keep the same or similar workflow. That's not always the right answer. That requires being able to listen and appreciate that doing something different would yield the same results in a different way.