Sababa Labs

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am VP of R&D for the casual division of Playtika. We are one of the biggest casual game developers and operators in the world, and we have a variety of games across all kinds of technologies and platforms, including mobile, Windows, and Amazon.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sababa Labs?

There were actually two main goals for our partnership with Sababa Labs. We wanted to expand our resources for engineering and R&D, and we also wanted to cut costs around QA and several other particular roles in our engineering department as well.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have provided development resources that integrate into our teams working on a variety of projects. They touch pretty much every part of our business, starting with QA but expanding to client and server development and UI art on some of our biggest development projects.

What is the team composition?

All in all, we work with close to 80 members of their team.

How did you come to work with Sababa Labs?

I had received a very strong recommendation from people I know in our local office who had worked with them before and loved their work. I met with their managers and it seemed like we had a good understanding, so we started small and expanded from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent over $1,000,000 in total with Sababa Labs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in late 2016 and have continued to partner with them since then.

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

We mainly measure their work in a few particular aspects. The main one is cost, which continues to be lower than their work would be if it was being done in house by a significant margin. We also track their quality and progress towards goals the same way we would evaluate the work performed by our own employees. Overall, we are very happy with everything they have provided.

How did Sababa Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

For the most part, our own project managers and supervisors are organizing and keeping track of the work, but we do have supervisors and an HR team coming from their side as well to help support us. Overall, that creates a very strong managerial connection that allows both sides to stay completely up to date on what the team is doing. The cooperation is very smooth.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We are a multi-vendor company, and we work with a lot of other companies in different places around the world. What I think sets Sababa Labs apart from the competition the most is their flexibility. They are incredibly open to whatever requirements and feedback we give them and always think outside the box.

Not only that, but they always make sure that their employees are given all the resources they need to deliver high-quality work. Their management works hard to provide their employees with an environment that helps them feel productive, wanted, and encouraged, and it makes them a really enjoyable team to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is nothing I can think of that they need to improve. We are very happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to come to them very openly with your problems and requirements. They provide very creative suggestions that can improve the project significantly, and it would be a mistake not to take advantage of that.