Parallel Staff, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the director of software development at a third-party logistics company. We handle service parts management, order fulfillment, and last-mile operations for e-commerce retailers and some big-box companies. Our team has broken out into three distinct pillars; I oversee our business intelligence operations and our integration and web teams. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Parallel Staff, Inc.?
We needed staff augmentation services and required senior developers to provide help desk support since we had a backlog of hundreds of service desk tickets that weren't being fulfilled in a timely manner. We also required support for new projects since we constantly onboard new customers, and our on-shore talent didn't have staff to work on new app development projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Parallel Staff, Inc. provides staff augmentation for help desk and development support. A standard onboarding with new customers consists of one of our developers interacting directly with the customer to find out the specifications of how we will get the data from their system and load it into our system. 

Some projects involve Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and others require interacting with APIs that the team has developed or custom APIs that we built for these clients to interact directly with us. Parallel Staff, Inc. helps us facilitate that work. 

In one instance, a developer worked with a big-box retailer customer to whom we provided last-mile delivery services and built an application that took real-time data out of our system and posted it into their system so they could track their deliveries' transportation in real-time. Two developers from Parallel Staff, Inc. for around four months.

Another project we recently worked on is a SQL Common Language Runtime (CLR), a dynamic API call made directly from SQL. When UPS retired their old web service we previously interacted with, one of Parallel Staff, Inc.'s developers took the open source code he had contributed to years ago and integrated it with our system to support the new framework for which we had to make these API calls.

What is the team composition?

We work with two integration developers and one web developer.

How did you come to work with Parallel Staff, Inc.?

The previous director, from whom I took the position, had engaged with Parallel Staff, Inc. I was the manager of the web team back then, and we started partnering with Parallel Staff, Inc. and two other companies to staff our team. I liked the work that Parallel Staff, Inc. did ahead of time to vet candidates for this position.

The team provided us with good resumes that highlighted the developers' experience. The recruiters took the time to understand our requirements for each position and delivered us with good candidates that we could interview immediately.
How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $500,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Parallel Staff, Inc. in September 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Parallel Staff, Inc.'s developers' work is great. We've gone from having about 200 tickets past due over our service level agreement (SLA), which is a three-day turnaround for break fixes, to having about three tickets as of this morning. Although it might not sound like a big number, the fact that we've been able to reduce our backlog, considering more tickets come in every day, is a success. 

Thanks to their expertise, Parallel Staff, Inc.'s developers have been able to engineer solutions that permanently resolve issues instead of providing quick reactive solutions. That is a testament to the team's knowledge and skill set. Parallel Staff, Inc. has built slick solutions that knock projects out of the park.

How did Parallel Staff, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

In some of the projects we've worked on, Parallel Staff, Inc. has completed them ahead of the estimated expectation. The team understands when we give them a deadline that we're trying to meet, and we don't ask them to work extra hours. However, when the developer worked on the SQL CLR solution, my integration manager saw him online at 10 p.m. The team is dedicated and does their best to meet deadlines, and they haven't exceeded deadlines.

We primarily communicate using Microsoft Teams, chat, voice calls, and email. My manager has daily stand-up meetings with our onshore and offshore teams to get to know them. I interact with the team once a month to check our project's needs, and they're quick to respond. Parallel Staff, Inc. makes us aware of when a teammate asks for days off ahead of time, allowing us to plan and adapt.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I want to shout out the developer who helped us create the SQL CLR API. He does a great job and has a great attitude every day. He helped us recently with that project, and it turned out he had contributed to an open source code project five years ago, which was exactly what we were looking for. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Parallel Staff, Inc. is very thorough in vetting candidates and ensuring they're high-quality professionals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't have any complaints. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

To get the most out of your engagement with Parallel Staff, Inc., be specific with your job descriptions and needs in the resources you're looking for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Riivet, a company that has a platform for streaming live and on-demand video. We set up broadcasters with websites and apps; they also consult with us on online broadcasting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Parallel Staff, Inc.?

Parallel Staff, Inc. provides us with software developers to speed up our development process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Parallel Staff, Inc. gave us multiple software developers to interview. They sent us resumes and provided programming assessments so we could learn the skill levels of their developers. From there, we conducted 30-minute interviews with the candidates. We had control over how to do those interviews. From there, we selected our preferred developers and signed contracts to hire them for a specific time, but we could stop contracting them anytime.

So far, we’ve hired 3–5 developers from Parallel Staff, Inc., and we currently work with three of them. They build apps for us using JavaScript and Ruby on Rails.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 3–6 teammates from Parallel Staff, Inc., including the developers and Paola (Account Manager). 

How did you come to work with Parallel Staff, Inc.?

We found Parallel Staff, Inc. on Google.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started in July 2020, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our biggest success metric is our time savings in hiring developers. If we did the hiring ourselves, we’d spend more time vetting the candidates and going through a larger pool of resources. Since Parallel Staff, Inc. does the vetting for us, the hiring process becomes quick and easy. Overall, they save us around 60 hours of work. 

How did Parallel Staff, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Parallel Staff, Inc. always communicates well and delivers what we need. For tools, we use Slack for communication and Jira for project management. 

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

We can always reach out to Paola when we need to address issues. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with how they find and present candidates for us to hire. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend a good amount of time on the interviews with the candidates. This way, you know the candidates are a good fit for your company. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Director of Services of a software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Complex project time, expense and equipment tracking with integrations to ERPs

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Parallel Staff, Inc. to accomplish?

• Obtain a dedicated resource to assist with custom software implementations

SOLUTION

How did you find Parallel Staff, Inc.?

Online Search

Why did you select Parallel Staff, Inc. over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Parallel Staff, Inc. were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

The goal was to onboard a full stack software engineer to help with customizing implementations for complex time and attendance solutions including shopfloor data collection automation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

the resource assigned to us fit so well into our company that we decided to extend the contract.

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

n/a

What was your primary form of communication with Parallel Staff, Inc.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

the ease of communication and responsiveness was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Parallel Staff, Inc. could have done differently?

none that come to mind right now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President of CrateBind LLC

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

CrateBind is your strategic partner for digital product innovation, devlopment, and evolution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Parallel Staff, Inc. to accomplish?

• Supplement our engineering teams with courteous, qualified engineers with great communication skills.

SOLUTION

How did you find Parallel Staff, Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select Parallel Staff, Inc. over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me
• High professionalism

How many teammates from Parallel Staff, Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Parallel Staff provided us with several engineers across a few projects. These engineers helped us develop web front ends and mobile applications using React and React Native. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to deliver on-time, on-budget, and at high quality.

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

Yes, Parallel Staff engineers completed their work on-time. Communication throughout the recruitment phase was quick and professional as well, as we ran our own technical hiring process on candidates provided by Parallel Staff. 

What was your primary form of communication with Parallel Staff, Inc.?

Email or Messaging App

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

Fast and professional communication. The quality of the candidates provided for us to interview and select from was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Parallel Staff, Inc. could have done differently?

None yet

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.
I am the Director of EB Pearls
Describe what your company does in a single sentence.
We specialize in e-commerce development, mobile app development and web development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Parallel Staff, Inc. to accomplish?

• Complex automotive security software

SOLUTION

How did you find Parallel Staff, Inc.?
Clutch Site
Why did you select Parallel Staff, Inc. over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Parallel Staff, Inc. were assigned to this project?
2-5 Employees
Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.
I worked with them to hire several talented java developers and java SDET consultants in Latin America for our software development project in a tight timeframe.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
ParallelStaff's provided excellent communication and were able to meet up with the duration for the recruiting process of the software development project.
Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?
I greatly appreciate ParallelStaff's dedicated partnership, they delivered on time and were able to meet up with the duration of the project.
What was your primary form of communication with Parallel Staff, Inc.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
I was impressed by their excellent communication and scope of delivery.
Are there any areas for improvement or something Parallel Staff, Inc. could have done differently?
I have been working with ParallelStaff for over one year and they have exceeded my expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Account Manager of Xerox

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Xerox is continuing its legacy of innovation to deliver client-centric and digitally-driven technology solutions

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Parallel Staff, Inc. to accomplish?

• We wanted to develop a historical data screen in our mobile application for users to access progress and historical trends in their data.

SOLUTION

How did you find Parallel Staff, Inc.?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Parallel Staff, Inc. over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Parallel Staff, Inc. were assigned to this project?

• business development manager
• project manager
• software developer.

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

We provided a very detailed scope of work of what was required, including wireframes, detailed milestones, meeting frequency, tech stack etc

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app work perfectly and it run well It is an absolute pleasure to cooperate with them!

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

They reach out to us effectively both on mails and skype ,they deliver fast and thier work is perfect

What was your primary form of communication with Parallel Staff, Inc.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The direct link. Its no long emails and Powerpoints, on our end we created very structured feedback and on Parallel end they just executed it directly, so we progressed very fast.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Parallel Staff, Inc. could have done differently?

Absolutely not. It was a pleasure working with them.