SCD Company

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of eVantage GmbH, a company that provides services for the banking industry and consulting for small and medium companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SCD Company?

I also own another company: a job board. We hired SCD company to help us provide consulting services to my other company through eVantage GmbH. Specifically, we hired them for application development in the Java environment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SCD Company provided development services to help us set up the infrastructure, and we now handle the maintenance. I did the general engineering of the two applications at the top level, meaning the UI; I produced wireframes and developed the apps’ architecture. From there, SCD Company developed technical solutions for the backend. Sometimes, I also defined APIs, and they implemented them. 

They helped us develop a web application where we manage all the jobs and company profiles of the job board’s clients. SCD Company developed a search engine feature and input processes to fetch data from other providers daily. We used Java, Spring Framework, and Angular for the frontend. On the backend, SCD Company used Python, Django, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch. 

Additionally, they guided how to use technologies and helped us evaluate our options. They showed us how to try new tools to find the best solution. On our end, I did a lot of testing to ensure everything worked fine. 

Another project they helped us with was a mobile application currently in the prototype stage. The app integrates maps, providers alerts, and takes pictures to upload to the system. SCD Company helped us build the backend for Android and iOS using React Native, with a Java and Spring Framework backend and a PostgreSQL database. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with 1–3 software developers and occasionally with project managers. 

How did you come to work with SCD Company?

I’ve worked with people from the same team for 20 years; I knew them from a previous Russian company. Many team members migrated from Russia and created SCD Company, and I decided to continue working with them because I had been very happy with their work. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2018–January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My goal was to produce solutions that ran without errors, and SCD Company always fixed bugs immediately, so our systems never had downtime. Once they helped us set up the runtime environments, we could run them with little effort. I also measured SCD Company's success based on the timeline and budget compliance.

How did SCD Company perform from a project management standpoint?

I was the project manager for the majority of our projects. SCD Company always delivered on time, with the needed window to test the product. Initially, we used Redmine to communicate, and then we moved to YouTrack. Where they reported their hours, and I could raise issues. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with the quality of SCD Company's developers. I've worked with other companies that give us junior developers who have no clue what they're doing. Then those companies try to sell us a project manager, so instead of one resource, we end up with three. Because SCD Company's developers were so competent, we never had to grow the team unnecessarily. Moreover, working with them was fun.

Their main strength is in how they select and train their employees. A senior developer coaches a junior developer by assigning them small tasks; over time, the student comes to the teacher's level. In the rare cases when a junior developer wasn't performing how SCD Company expected, they replaced them in our project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They improved all the time. Our language barrier was sometimes challenging, but their English was very good, and we could communicate easily. Additionally, although we like to see providers widen their scope of services, I appreciated how SCD Company concentrated on what they did best. Therefore, there was nothing they needed to improve except to get more people on board their team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should know you're dealing with a competent team, not just a development resource.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I have been CTO of the company at that time. We developed the software at that time.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SCD Company, and what were your goals?

At that time we had contracts with Softaria. The team went to SCD Company. We had a business relationship to Softaria for about eight years. We purchased external resources (custom software development) from Softaria for that time. We needed additional development resources for our software projects. We integrated Softaria's developers in our teams. Softaria was a dynamic and intelligent partner. The team was well educated and extended our teams skilfully.

SOLUTION

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

A befriended software developer was in connection to Softaria. We asked whether he could recommend a company. He did.

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

We developed a full featured desktop search for a large German microchip company. The software project included mostly .NET development, integration of C++ search technology as well as COM components. The desktop search has a Outlook like GUI and a full integration of desktop and enterprise search. Local mail integration, integration of local hard drives and server shares as well as enterprise search. Archive support, delta detection to local information (mail and file system) including automatic indexing.

Further in document search was supported. The search technology supported fault tolerance. The project included previews for larger than 250 document types. in document search. The development team was integrated in our local team. Further software projects were developed with Softaria using a lot of different technologies including Java, .NET, Spring, OSGI, OSS development at Eclipse.

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

Depending on the project.... Two to five developers plus sometimes local project management. Usually normal, senior and principle developers. One time documentation translation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Usually the team was integrated in our development teams. We had quite successful projects together. Happy customers on our side. Eg. we sold a lot of licences of our desktop search to the chip vendor.

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

Integrated. Using Skype and JIRA and Confluence. Code sharing via VSS systems and build servers. During a visit the team was together in a good project room with direct communication options for fast and efficient communication.

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

They provided well-educated and flexible developers. A good management team that is flexible. Interested in creating business and partnership.Even onsite development in Germany was possible.

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

At the beginning (2001++) the communication was not perfekt due to Skype/ tooling. Using modern screen sharing would be better. Having tools like MS Teams, Docker would have been beneficial.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CTO of Castle Learning Systems, an educational software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SCD Company?

We had a start-up engineering school that started as a research project about novel ideas on how to teach mathematics. We already had the logic planned and needed a company to develop the front- and backend applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired SCD Company to build the platform from scratch. The platform is an interactive site that helps students solve complex mathematical problems. The system analyzes the students’ answers and offers detailed feedback and explanations. SCD Company has used Java and MySQL for the databases and Angular for the frontend.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with nine people from SCD Company, including a project manager, developers, designers, and architects.

How did you come to work with SCD Company?

One of our co-founders knew of their company, so they were among the options we considered when evaluating companies for this project. One of the main reasons why we chose them was because they have a background in math, physics, and computer science, so we were confident that they would be able to understand complex tasks related to science and complex algorithms.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $1.2 million USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2014, and the platform was finished in 2016. We still work with them on updates and maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product has been launched and is being successfully used in education. Ours is a very demanding market, so the quality and stability of the product are extremely important for us. So far, we haven’t received any complaints or experienced any crashes or bugs.

How did SCD Company perform from a project management standpoint?

SCD Company has performed well in terms of project management. They’re incredibly flexible, responsive, and accommodating of changes in the scope. They always have a dedicated project manager whom we communicate directly with. We also plan sprints together in advance to help us stay on track and deliver on time and within budget.

We use GitHub and Redmine for project management, and we typically communicate through Slack and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most impressed with SCD Company’s dedication and knowledge in their field. They’re always able to address all of our questions and the complex issues that arise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s not really an issue for us, but they usually take time to scale teams.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to be more engaged and to plan in advance. They are very agile, but they need to have enough information and guidelines to get better results faster.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a specialized offshore development company. I am the project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SCD Company, and what were your goals?

We have an outrunning java application and asked SCD for a new, modern java/client architecture.

SOLUTION

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

I new the key developer for many years and do not needed many vendors.

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

I asked for the full project flow, from project management, java development, js and firebase development inclusive devops

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

A project manager, a junior developer, an java/node architect and a devops engeneer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

a satisfied customer

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

we used a redmine project management and telegram. and from time. to time. we used also google meet.

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

I have a lot experience in development, and I truly have never worked with a development team that's more reliable than SCD Company.

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

No, just perfect.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of software company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SCD Company, and what were your goals?

I've worked with Roman several times over the last 15 years, for a variety of custom software development projects.

SOLUTION

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

We were first referred to Roman by another software development firm that we had worked with, and that was unable to add staff quickly enough to handle our requirements. Roman and his team were responsive, cost-effective, technically adroit, and good communicators.

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

Most of the work has been web-based app development with a focus on server-side technologies.

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

The most recent project was a team of 4.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of work has been consistently good.

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

Communication has been consistent, usually via email or other tools we specified.

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

Solid technical expertise and communication skills

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

Occasionally the English translation for an error code or other non-provided text would need to be tweaked.