Stratoflow

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a fintech company. Our company produces financial software for institutions like investment banks and insurance companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Stratoflow?

We needed help with software maintenance and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stratoflow works on maintenance, development, and testing environments in the cloud. I built the software, and Stratoflow has set up the cloud environment and ran the software there using AWS. The team also works using Unix, Linux, and Python.

What is the team composition?

We work with two teammates from Strataflow.

How did you come to work with Stratoflow?

I've known teammates from Stratoflow for 20 years.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure the project's success by setting up the environment and completing the work, and Stratoflow has done both. The team has demonstrated test results.

How did Stratoflow perform from a project management standpoint?

Stratoflow delivers everything we need. We communicate via Microsoft Teams, and the team is responsive whenever we have questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’d like to highlight Stratoflow's capability and knowledge in the areas they work in, which are Unix, Linux, and Python.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything Stratoflow can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise keeping on top of Stratoflow's instructions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Managing Consultant of CG Consultancy (UK) Limited

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Technology Consultancy and Private Equity Advisory.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Stratoflow to accomplish?

• Develop market leading search engine for hotel accomodiation
• Support in-house technology transformation team
• Provide external technology consultancy and guidance to the team

SOLUTION

How did you find Stratoflow?

Referral

Why did you select Stratoflow over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Stratoflow were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Stratoflow supplemented our in-house consultancy team, providing senior Java software engineers, testers, architects - to develop a cutting edge in-memory data grid (using Apache Ignite / Gridgain) providing high performance, low latency search capability for hotel room accommodation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We began the project in 2016 as part of a private equity backed M&A process that involved the acquisition of two leading hotel accommodation wholesalers. The combined businesses worth in excess £400m. 

Stratoflow supplemented our onsite (and remote) digital transformation consultancy team of 15, providing development expertise to build new intellectual property for the company in the form of a high performance, highly scaleable hotel search engine servicing several hundred million searches per day. This was a key enabler for the integration of the two businesses and successful PE sale (exit) of the investment 3 years later to a larger global competitor business.

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

Stratoflow worked excellently within our agile delivery framework, delivering as per the product roadmap and overseen by agile project management. Stratoflow was a great partner, challenging as well as supporting our customer projects for the best outcome.

What was your primary form of communication with Stratoflow?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Statoflow have a great pool of talent within the business - all very capability technologists as well as being business-savvy and suitable for consultancy engagements.

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

Stratoflow continue to evolve and self develop, I'm enjoying our continued business relationship with the team regularly helping us perform technical due diligence and code reviews on behalf of leading European private equity firms and their invested portfolio companies.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Technology Officer of Legerity Financials

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide accounting and financial services software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Stratoflow to accomplish?

• To develop and maintain a software accounting hub for use in telecom, insurance, and banking industries.

SOLUTION

How did you find Stratoflow?

Other

Why did you select Stratoflow over others?

• Company values aligned
• We based our decision on previous CEO's earlier success with project in partnership with Stratoflow

How many teammates from Stratoflow were assigned to this project?

12

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

Develop, extend, and maintain a flexible cloud-based accounting hub for use in telecom, insurance, and banking industries.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developed software product was built from scratch with solid quality, very few production bugs and a rich list of features, which was delivered to and used by clients globally.

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

• Agile, mainly Kanban-based development methodology with elements of Scrum. 
• Short 1-week sprints, with prioritisation and planning happening weekly. 
• Stratoflow team suggest the best approach and individuals to address specific tasks, but are flexible to listen to your opinion / preferences.
• Creative management and developers: They have a vision, find opportunities, and propose various improvement and automation technical tasks that we did not necessarily ask for. While they usually have a purpose, it is important to keep track of priorities at all times so that developers do not get carried away. 

The Stratoflow management team has vast experience and ideas they are eager to offer. While, for the most part, items are delivered on time, developers’ estimates at times are inaccurate, which occasionally led to project over-run. Things have improved though as the team gained more experience. To make estimate more precise, it is important to provide the team with clear requirements.

What was your primary form of communication with Stratoflow?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We have had a long-term engagement with Stratoflow for nearly 10 years. We look at them as partners, rather than contractors. Stratoflow offers a strong team, from the architect level down to junior developers. They have a knowledgeable business analyst that works closely with internal business SMEs to discuss requirements and develop an approach. 

I'm impressed by their team culture and cross-team support – management encourages team spirit and organises various team-building activities to maintain a high level of buy-in. They offer a good command of the English language, both verbal and written. 

Main technical strengths: 

• Core Java, Spring boot, in-memory caches, performance improvements, experience with large and distributed systems, AWS, Linux. 
• Contributed several bug fixes to open-source community. 
• Front-end experience with HTML, javascript, Vue.js

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am one of the founders and the former CEO of Mennica Skarbowa. I am currently a member of the supervisory board. We sell investment gold, such as physical bars and coins, in Poland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codedose?

We were building a gold trading platform where users could buy gold from us and sell to other users. Our company would guarantee that the trades were legitimate and that physical gold bars were being bought and sold.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Codedose was responsible for the IT work on our platform, both backend and frontend. I don’t know what technologies were used, but I do remember that we used outsourced servers for hosting.

The platform has a payment integration tool that allows users to transfer money to their bank accounts. Payments are automatically checked on the bank’s side and saved within the user’s account on the platform.

We also integrated the platform with a third-party SMS provider. Each transaction was confirmed with a unique code typed by the user.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with Arkadiusz Drysch [CTO, Codedose], who managed the project. I entrusted him fully with the technical side. One or two other people in the company sent me questions regarding the project. I don’t know how many developers were used.

How did you come to work with Codedose?

They were recommended to us when we were looking for a company to work on this project.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Codedose in the beginning of 2012, and launched the project after six or seven months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform operated well, but we only ran it for two years. Even though it was successful, it was killing our main business; users preferred to buy gold through it, instead of from us. Our margins for the platform were much lower, so it wasn’t a successful business choice.

While it was working, I don’t remember having any issues with it. Everything worked fine, and there were no crashes. I was satisfied with its reliability and appearance.

How did Codedose perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well. We were aware of the project timelines, and we could see and review the completed components. Arkadiusz Drysch was mainly responsible for communicating with us and presenting their work progress. Later, after the platform was launched, we kept in touch to build new features.

We mainly communicated by email and phone, but we also held some meetings during which we presented the platform’s functionality and usability.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Prior to founding my current company, I used quite a few IT companies during my work for a startup investment fund. In comparison with those companies, our collaboration with Codedose was reliable. They always met deadlines and showed us their work progress, which are two of the most important factors when working with an IT company.

The project wasn’t easy from a technical point of view. I had never worked on something so complicated, but everything worked the way we wanted it. Overall, we were satisfied with the collaboration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to point something out, because it’s been a few years. There probably was something we weren’t happy about, but I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to be specific and detailed about requirements. We’ve had to work with Codedose to determine what we wanted, and I’m glad that they helped us with it. We didn’t have anyone with IT skills in the company, so understanding what we wanted to build was their responsibility. It took some time to turn these ideas into specific tasks, so being more prepared can simplify and speed up the work.

BACKGROUND

Tier 2 Consulting is the only dedicated Red Hat Premier Middleware Partner supporting clients across the United Kingdom and Ireland. We focus entirely on strategic advisory, personnel training and application development services for users of enterprise and community versions of JBoss Middleware.

Our application development team works in partnership with clients to develop advanced web applications using JEE and industry standard frameworks, and agile processes based on the scrum methodology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Tier 2 delivers custom software to medium to large-scale clients in a variety of industry sectors, including biotech, legal, insurance, and finance. The quality of what we deliver is dependent on a number of different factors like the technology choice, project approach, and overall team skill.

Projects vary greatly in terms of team size and duration, with deadlines driven by customer needs, and that represents a significant project and business planning challenge. In addition, the overall growth of the business has produced the need for a larger pool of technical skills on a more regular basis. Tier 2 has its own internal team but, in order to provide planning flexibility, we periodically require "burst capacity" to help support the team during high demand or highly complex tasks.

Simply pulling individual contract developers into our team, on a project-by-project basis, does not fit with our business model. Tier 2's whole approach is one of partnership – with our customers, technology vendors, and third-party service providers. We were looking for a "like-minded" development partner that could supplement our own development staff – not just with the same technical skills, but with the same belief as to how projects should be delivered, the same work ethic, and the same customer-first attitude. 

SOLUTION

Through web research, we initially identified three potential Java development companies and had conversations with each of them concerning their respective skill sets and overall project delivery approach.

We felt that, as a small business, Codedose shared the same values as Tier 2, and wanted to act more as a partner than simply a subcontractor or strict production studio. At this point, we conducted a series of technical interviews with the developers who could be made available for our first project. We wanted to ensure that the resources would be a good fit both technically and culturally.

The initial project duration was about six months and, as with all Tier 2 projects, managed internally, with Codedose developers being part of the team. The agile approach – with continual communication and daily scrum meetings – facilitates this approach.

The approach has proven to be very successful, and we have been using Codedose developers on our teams for more than two years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

We are very pleased with our partnership with Codedose and, as we continue to grow, we expect to increase the numbers of developers that work with us on our projects.

They have proven to be very skilled and flexible – for example, working evenings and weekends when deadlines demanded it and by helping us support and maintain applications, rather than always working on new developments. They're extremely reliable, and they have a very good company culture of their own, which gives them a real edge compared to other providers that serve more as production shops rather than thought partners and creative problem solvers. 

Where and when we have had to introduce new developers to our own internal team, the Codedose management team has been very conscientious about who they assign. Unexpected turnover has never been a problem and communication has always been superb. There isn't anything I would change about our partnership with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a London-based agency dealing in website development, web apps, branding, marketing, pay-per-click, and online sales. We offer full web solutions to our clients.

What is your position?

I am a tech project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Codedose?

We had an immediate requirement for more resources to help us complete a heavy-duty job. It was a resource augmentation engagement. We needed more hands on deck, so we could deliver the requested solution within the project constraints, but there was no time or need to find permanent resources for this type of work.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Codedose provided Java development for an e-commerce solution with brokerage peer-to-peer sales included. It was a custom development job for an existing codebase, and it required learning how to replicate and augment the previous functionality, which they were excellent at.

We deal one on one with their project managers. We set goals and objectives and establish teams depending on what needs we have at a given time. There is usually one coder at a time assigned to our project. We bring in more as we need to expand. At peak capacity, there were three team members working for us, not including the project managers. 

How did you come to work with Codedose?

We approached a few different teams, but Codedose were in the best position to work with us. They had extensive knowledge of the technology we used. Some of the projects they'd worked on matched what we were looking to develop.

One of the requirements we had for the project were effective communication skills. All of their project managers are fluent in English. They don't tend to work on a rigid 9 to 5 schedule. They can accommodate outside hours and work in an agile fashion to meet our demands. We've often called them during weekends and within various non-business hours. Despite the fact that Codedose are not based in our country, they worked well within our schedule. Their flexibility was superb. 

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The project has been running for three years, with a minimum of 100 hours per month. Much of the time, we work more than that. I can't provide an exact figure in financial terms.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Codedose has met all of the project requirements that we've set with them. They've learned how to administer and add to the base of a completed system without a formal handover and without major defects.

I haven't come across many bug reports, but we're constantly evolving. End users can be either logged-in clients or peer to peer. It is a complicated system that has worked well thus far, which is a testament to the quality of work Codedose can produce.

How did Codedose perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage their team using a ticketing system. Codedose has adapted well to our project management approach, using our tools without a problem.

What distinguishes Codedose from other providers?

We have a good relationship. I deal with one of their top people as a point of contact on a very regular basis. It has worked out very well. He is always available, either on Skype or via email. We receive answers after hours, which is very good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company provides an accounting hub for investment banks, telecoms and insurers. Our solution is a combination of the accounting engine Subledger, data warehouse, and other components that enable users to handle transactions and valuations from multiple systems and add them up in a subledger in order to create reports at a detailed level.

What is your position?

I am the chief technology officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Codedose?

We needed a developer that could write Java code to our specifications.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Codedose have provided Java-based and Oracle Coherence development for our company. They've worked with Oracle Database and Hadoop as well as quite a number of other novel technologies like the blockchain interface.

Our team consisted of between two to three developers. Codedose does provide some testing services, but I am in charge of most of the quality assurance.

How did you come to work with Codedose?

I knew their owner through a previous company. It was reasonably logical to work with him again for Java development. We were aware of other software developers, but none of them had the proper skill set for our work.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The monthly cost for their development work is around $12,000 to $14,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been engaged with them since January 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We work on an iteration basis. I keep a close check on the time allocated by Codedose to each task and on how much they go over on each release. They've always been very close to their deadlines. We've achieved our targets in terms of time and budget throughout our collaboration. This comes down to careful planning and the fact that both our teams know what they're doing.

How did Codedose perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been consistently able to deliver work on time and within budget. Culturally speaking, Codedose are a typical Polish developer. I track our work using a spreadsheet through which I define plans, progress reports, and the amount of time spent by their team on each task. I don't use specialized tools. The specs are too small for anything else.

What distinguishes Codedose from other providers?

I've worked with their owner [Arkadiusz Drysch] in a previous capacity and our relationship gave him a good understanding of the product we were trying to build. It would be difficult to find a different developer with this level of expertise, which makes Codedose unique in this point of view.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

MusQueteer is a small IT consulting firm. We typically employ technically-savvy consultants and project managers that serve as intermediaries between clients and development companies, providing the translation between the two. We operate within the telecom, utility, and healthcare markets.

What is your position?

I am a co-owner and the chief operating officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Codedose?

We needed resources for the technical implementation of a project.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Codedose has offered development work for us in Java and has also made implementations based on a document management system called M-Files. They didn't have previous experience with it, but they studied its application program interface [API] and managed to implement what we needed. They also provided HTML web development.

Our first project required connecting small functionality to a specific DMS. This was followed by building a search engine on top of it using ElasticSearch technology.

The development team provided by Codedose consisted of two developers for our first project. One of the owners acted as a project manager, taking care of technical design as well as financial budgeting. The search engine implementation had two developers assigned to it, as well as a technical lead.

How did you come to work with Codedose?

One of our employees had had experience with them during his work at a different company. He was very happy with their experience, recommending Codedose not only for their technical talent but also for their abilities to find solutions. We had an initial interview with them and used their services with the first opportunity where we needed Java programming.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total cost for their services has been around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're currently working with them on a third project. Our satisfaction level with their previous work prompted us to hire Codedose once more.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

In terms of metrics, we base success on what solutions Codedose offers to us. We act as an intermediary between them and the client, which means that Codedose needs to come up with an initial solution. We've been very happy with their proposals. They haven't required a lot of additional work, which translates to happy customers.

Codedose typically proposes technical solutions and general layouts for a website. Normally, we only make minor tweaks in order to present the offer to the client. Collaborating with other companies, we've sometimes had to rework entire proposals.

How did Codedose perform from a project management standpoint?

We're working on a third project which is only loosely defined. The solution has brought along some technical challenges and has proven to be more complex than what we initially thought. It requires technical people which are also flexible in changing their focus. It's a hard job to do, but Codedose has done it well.

We have an incident tracking software that we've developed ourselves in M-Files. We use it to design solutions and report incidents based on requirements. Codedose has been happy to use it. We typically collaborate directly with the developers assigned to our work. Their English level is good, which makes it easy to communicate with them. We communicate with the owner or co-owner at the start of the project. Once a plan has been set, we talk directly with the developers, mostly by email and conference calls.

What distinguishes Codedose from other providers?

They're very skilled technically and are also able to see the bigger picture. Codedose can actually think about solutions, not just the technical task at hand, which they've been assigned.

Is there anything Codedose could have improved or done differently?

The only drawback so far is that they sometimes don't ask us for guidance as quickly as they should. Our past projects have been less complex from a technical point-of-view, so less guidance was needed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We produce customized printing products. Our customers design print orders utilizing various choices in terms of design.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Codedose?

We needed a development company in order to create custom design elements for our website. It was a technically complex project which couldn't be solved using off-the-shelf solutions. We needed the platform to behave nicely, be easy to use for customers, and have a lot of custom previews and other features.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Codedose developed a custom website for our company using HTML5, based on our existing framework. It works on both desktop and mobile devices.

The preview functionality is the most complex part of their work. Customers can interact with their designs using drag elements and see results live on screen. Our website is mobile-friendly, being able to scale down certain elements based on device.

We mainly worked with one developer at a time. We also interacted with their other staff, based on the type of work being done.

I've extended our collaboration to an application for my second company.

How did you come to work with Codedose?

I was trying to find the only web developer in existence which didn't focus on Magento. It seems to be the prevalent platform right now. Based on the skillsets we required, we looked for a company with a good technical understanding. Codedose were the ones we chose.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial website Codedose developed for us was completed in July [2015]. We've worked on a list of improvements for it since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Codedose does an overall good job. There were moments in which we had to make an extra effort to make our requirements understood, but this is perfectly normal in this kind of collaboration.

In general, they've been quite responsive to solving problems. We've had a few occasions in which something didn't work as expected. Codedose was quick to track down the issues and fix them.

How did Codedose perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been able to deliver all of their work on time and within budget, which has been very impressive. We communicate mostly through email and by using a shared spreadsheet on Google Drive which lists the projects we're working on. We don't use specific project tracking software.

What distinguishes Codedose from other providers?

I haven't used enough providers in order to accurately answer this question. We're happy with Codedose and have chosen to use them for a second project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the CO-Founder & CTO of an information technology company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We build Circular Fashion Super App.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Stratoflow to accomplish?

• Fashion AI/ML Recommendation Engine

SOLUTION

How did you find Stratoflow?

Referral

Why did you select Stratoflow over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Stratoflow were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Building a ready-made recommendation engine for the internal application.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have developed and implemented a recommendation engine that is now running in our application.

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

We were kept up to date at every stage of the project. We discussed the product together and were in constant contact with each other. We set up a separate communication channel to keep up to date with all tasks and amendments.

What was your primary form of communication with Stratoflow?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They have impressively good knowledge of AI issues. Very responsive to any amendments and findings. Very good communication. We received a finished project which could be implemented into production shortly after testing.

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

There is no such area. We are ready and willing to cooperate further on the development of the engine.