OmbuLabs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior site reliability engineer of Flexera, an IT solutions company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OmbuLabs?

We had a Ruby On Rails application that didn’t have active developers, and we needed help in upgrading and modernizing it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OmbuLabs helped us enhance our mobile app. We started by having an onboarding process so they could familiarize themselves with the product to begin working on the app. In terms of functionalities, they helped us integrate a dashboard to allow users to launch and manage AWS, Google, and IBM cloud services. The application was a multi-cloud platform that consolidated all cloud resources in one place to make everything easier to manage.

In terms of technologies, they used PostgreSQL, Ruby On Rails, and Docker, among others.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Michael (Senior Engineering Manager) and other 8–9 members of their team in charge of development roles.

How did you come to work with OmbuLabs?

We found them through Google, and after a few interviews with several providers, we chose OmbuLabs because they met our criteria and seemed the most capable of delivering what we were looking for.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–September 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were satisfied with OmbuLabs’ work; they left us a roadmap that we could use to continue the upgrade process ourselves. In addition, their team made significant progress in updating our versions of Ubuntu. They exceeded our expectations in a lot of ways.

How did OmbuLabs perform from a project management standpoint?

OmbuLabs’ team was communicative and provided constant reports on the project’s progress. Regarding tools and communication, we used Microsoft Teams, phone calls, and weekly Zoom meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Besides being based in the US, their expertise and skill levels were their best attributes, which was a big plus for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would’ve been nice to have more senior developers from the beginning because we had a rocky start with the onboarding process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them a clear picture of your project expectations so they can be more efficient in choosing the right development resources from the start.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a credit risk management firm. We work with banks, and we access the credit risk of their loan portfolios. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ombu Labs?

In 2016, the guidance for banks on how they calculate their loss reserves on loans changed. Based on the new guidance, all of the finance institutions we worked with were required to use the revised methodology. So, we decided to develop a software to calculate the reserves for community banks and public banks.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They ended up doing most of our backend coding for the different modules within our platform, along with further some development and design.

After we gave them templates of how to create the formulas, they developed screenshots and demos before proceeding with the production of it. They use Ruby on Rails for coding. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4–5 people depending on their timing and specialty. They had two project managers on our project, and Ernesto (Founder & CTO) was the main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Ombu Labs?

We started off with another company, but they ended up getting too busy for us. So, they referred us to Ombu Labs. Ernesto gave a deck of different projects they had worked on. We told him about our next steps, and he said he could easily take it on. We started meeting in person, and it evolved from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We started working with the team in mid-2018, and we still maintain a professional relationship with them. They remain available in case we have any questions or issues based on the work they did.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s close to $200,000 in total, and we’ve spent about two-quarters of that sum with Ombu Labs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, I’m very happy with the product itself. The implementation got pushed back due to COVID-19. But, the software has been functioning great despite small bumps here and there. They were very reactive to any change requests we had while we were finalizing development. 

The team did a good job of converting our requirements into code. Whenever you change code, there’s a learning curve between different phases. But, they did a great job in those transitions. There was never a time when they said they couldn’t figure a task out.

Our goal is to do very well with the product. We’ve got good traction, good market presence, and there are a lot of clients on our platform. 

How did Ombu Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a good relationship. If I wanted to push on a certain area, they were flexible about focusing on that. I was never waiting for them to respond. 

We had meetings every week when we went through all of our options to make sure we were all aligned. We used a project management tool where we tracked everything that needed to be developed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very professional, efficient, and proactive as well as responsive to our requests. Working with them was a good experience, and I’ve already recommended other potential clients to them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

From a product standpoint, I’m happy with where we’re at. I do wish they had more bandwidth to service maintenance on the backend, but in the meantime they’ve referred us to another company for maintenance and it’s been working well. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You need to be very prepared on the frontend. Make sure you have a project manager that can communicate with them. They’re really on top of accomplishing the goals that they’ve set.