Qadvance

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an IT services firm.

What challenges were you trying to address with Qadvance?

They provided us staff augmentations services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide us with resources that we then work with directly on projects.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one person from Qadvance.

How did you come to work with Qadvance?

They were referred by someone inside our company. 

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent between $40,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with them for about a year.

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

We’ve had great results, they have been available to solve anything that comes up. Both in operational and managerial terms, they have been great.

How did Qadvance perform from a project management standpoint?

We managed the projects ourselves so our interaction with the resource was direct.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They always respond very quickly to our requests.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I couldn’t say anything so far.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an operations manager of an IT company.

What challenges were you trying to address with Qadvance (IT Staffing)?

We hired Qadvance (IT Staffing) to provide us with staff augmentation services for a project we have with a metallurgy company. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Qadvance (IT Staffing) collects requirements from our client; they then manage those requirements and deliver the expected results back. Aside from that, they are also in charge of leading project management positions.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a total of 15 people; Qadvance (IT Staffing) provided three of those team members. 

How did you come to work with Qadvance (IT Staffing)?

We thought it was a great opportunity to work with Qadvance (IT Staffing) because they worked with our client before. We knew that they had the field experience, and we could count on them to lead this project since it’s important to us.

How much have you invested in them?

We spend $50,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing project started in January 2016. We have been working with them for about five years and we expect to continue our collaboration.

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

We’ve had a good collaboration — their knowledge of the industry is key in this project. Also, their working methodology has made processes more efficient for us; they’re able to adapt to the client’s requirements allowing us to provide a better service.

How did Qadvance (IT Staffing) perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s good communication between us, Qadvance (IT Staffing), and the client. We have been working for them for a long time and we feel like they’re a part of our team. At the beginning of the project we had to make some adjustments, but now, our communication is perfectly fluid. We use Jira and Microsoft tools, such as Teams, to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The project was supposed to end after five years; we went through a licitation process with the client again and we were able to renew the contract. This was in part thanks to them because we know the client values their work. Our company has received better evaluations thanks to our partnership with Qadvance (IT Staffing).

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have a more strict follow-up process; they tend to be informal. Having a formal meeting to discuss the collaboration — its advances and processes — can be good every once in a while.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for a company that provides software, consulting and delivery services to a broad range of top-500 corporations. We are experts in data centers, cloud services, consolidations, migrations, evacuations, and many other data technical services. Our software allows our clients to understand their hardware and software assets and provides the platform in which our consulting and delivery services teams perform their roles.

My role is the Director of Engineering, responsible for the application infrastructure that enables our services, as well as the application components that are commercially sold to our clients and partners.

For what projects/services did your company hire Qadvance (IT Staffing), and what were your goals?

Our application components are continually being refined, improved, advanced and updated. Our install base is very dynamic, and the features and functionality that our software provides ranges from simple web interfaces to highly complex task generation, data transformation and remote integrations.

We require a sophisticated, senior Quality Assurance team that can dig into our software tools, understand them fully, and test and validate these applications on a range of platforms.

How did you select Qadvance (IT Staffing) and what were the deciding factors?

QAdvance provides excellent senior QA staff members to augment our base team. The deciding factor for the staff is always how well they perform, how professional they are, how well they communicate, and in general how senior and expert the staff.

Cost of course is a factor, but the most impressive part of our QAdvance staff is how well they do in their day to day tasks.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

It all starts with manual testing of the primary applications, hitting all aspects from User Interface, User Experience, feature completion, functionality, inputs, outputs and all the range of things you would expect from a sophisticated web-based application.

This can include rote manual testing based on skills and knowledge of how the applications are supposed to work, as well as writing up manual testing steps that can be incorporated into release level testing. This also includes automated testing at all levels, from unit testing, to integration, API and E2E testing using some advanced tools.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A small number of senior QA engineers have been working with us from QAdvance at one time or another. I have never been disappointed with any of our QAdvance staff.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The best indication of success is that we come very close to meeting our release schedule with the level of quality that our internal and external clients expect with all our applications.

Our QA team works diligently to fill the gaps and hit all the edges around the applications and we have learned a lot from some of these "non-standard" and somewhat "unexpected" uses of the applications. This thinking outside the box and stretching the application beyond the intended features has been very helpful and noted by our internal Product teams.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

QAdvance works very well in the background with their individuals and supports them with basics such as hardware, and notifying us of vacations, holidays in the local countries and any other issues. This frees us to treat the resources from QAdvance as "just more members of the team" and it feels very much like they work for us and not just "contractors". This invisible control behind the scenes is very much appreciated.

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

QAdvance has a very open and communicative style. We know where our costs are going, down to the penny, and that is a hugely important advantage that QAdvance provides beyond some of our other staffing partners. Giving us that level of clarity and control over the staff allows us to reward excellent work knowing the rewards are going to the individuals and not getting swallowed up in a black hole.

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

QAdvance has always been responsive whenever we have staffing needs, and they have always responded quickly and professionally with any questions or issues. There is nothing I can think of that QAdvance can do differently or better.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I´m Head of the Digital Operating Center in DiRWA LATAM. Our company provides hyper-automation solutions implementation, process automation, digital workers operation and management, automated processes maintenance and enhancement, architecture and consulting services.

For what projects/services did your company hire Qadvance (IT Staffing)?

We need high level consultants for automation projects and flexible staffing services for floating demands

How did you select this agency and what were the deciding factors?

Recomendation

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Provide long term consultants and On demand team with flexible working hours

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

According to our demands we discussed the best model that would generate benefit for both companies

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

We were able to assign the necessary resource according to our customers variable demand

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We found the best communication channels and methodology to ensure an agile workflow

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

Their openness and willingness to help and adjust their services to our specific demands are impressive.

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

Some profile adjusments and a better skill validation prior to sending candidates to our evaluation