Svitla Systems

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principle UX designer for Mueller Water Products, a company that specializes in water distribution. The company has been historically positioned in the infrastructure and mechanical space, creating gate valves, fire hydrants, pressure control and monitoring pumps, and repair clamps. In the last 5–7 years, we’ve jumped into the software space to provide the ability to monitor networks’ health, execute billing functions, and allow customers to collect meter readings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Svitla Systems?

We needed UX designers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Svitla Systems has prescreened candidates for us and provided senior UX designers. Initially, we asked them to look for a replacement in the fall. They led the process and conducted the interviews. Svitla Systems identified the qualifications we were looking for and lined up many candidates. Since we’re an international company, we wanted someone near our time zone to minimize disruptions.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with three UX designers from Svitla Systems.

How did you come to work with Svitla Systems?

I don’t know how they became partners; we were simply trying to fill some staffing positions.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2022, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Svitla Systems has done an excellent job. We’re very happy with the associate we hired; they have the skills we require and a good work ethic. Overall, the selection process went well from a logistics and operations standpoint, and Svitla Systems provided a broad and impressive pool of candidates.

How did Svitla Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very communicative and easy to work with. Even though English is their second language, they communicate clearly. We use Jira, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a broad pool of professionals we can work with. Also, Svitla Systems responds quickly and has assisted us in our attempt to get some holiday gifts for our international partners. All in all, we only have good things to say about them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We made it clear that we were looking for English speakers, and Svitla Systems brought us many candidates that were qualified for the job. However, we struggled to understand a couple of them. It wasn’t really troublesome, but we couldn’t understand them enough to work with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate with them when you need something. If an associate isn’t working well, they’re always willing to discuss it and move on from that resource. Just leverage their service; they’re flexible and quick to act.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a digital solutions company. We create products to help companies to be more profitable.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Svitla Systems?

We were trying to build a mobile app but didn’t want to invest a full-time team in it because the project was at an early stage. Consequently, we sought help in a staff augmentation modality to see how this product could work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Svitla Systems has been helping us with Android and iOS mobile app development using Kotlin as their main programming language. The product is an application for drivers; they can use the app as a credit card to pay for fuel and calculate how many hours they drove on their shifts. The platform also shows transactions and how much money they’ve spent — it’s like a small banking app. In addition, we’re working on integrating the product into some of our related existing apps and making them work together. 

What was the team composition?

We work with about six members of their team, including two Android developers, two iOS specialists, and a crew for backend engineering support.

How did you come to work with Svitla Systems?

I chose them for this project because I had worked with them previously and had a very good experience.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we’ve spent around $250,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2022, and the engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Svitla Systems’ work quality is great, their engineers are very adaptable, and they’ve got a hold of everything very quickly. Moreover, they’ve understood our needs, which makes us feel confident about the work they deliver

How did Svitla Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

We do project management ourselves, and Svitla Systems’ developers have adapted to our processes, communication tools, and overall organization. In terms of budget, they stick to what we plan. Moreover, they have a great customer focus and the ability to integrate into our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Svitla Systems’ team has been making the process very easy for us because the development resources they’ve provided can work well with our team and have great quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could streamline their billing processes. We get a bill for each engineer, and it might be better to receive a single invoice as a group.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about your requirements. Having a very clear job description will help them find better candidates.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a VP of Support for a marketing company. CTM is one of the largest distributors of visitor & tourism information in North America.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Svitla Systems, and what were your goals?

We've been working with Svitla Systems for over a decade on various projects. Anything from custom software development, different databases, migrating our systems into a cloud environment.

SOLUTION

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

We initially hired Svitla to help maintain our website and custom solutions. Since then Svitla has become our go to vendor for our software needs.

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

Our cloud migration required numerous interconnected solutions to be moved into a cloud without interrupting our services.

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

Over the years our Svitla team was changing. Anywhere between 1 to 5 developers - depending on projects and specific skills needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to successfully migrate, recreate our data warehouse and reporting.

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

Communication with Svitla has always been easy and consistent. On daily basis we have calls with developers and can always reach out to our account rep.

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

Svitla Systems has access to a large number of developers with a wide range of skills. Over the years we developed number of software solutions and Svitla was always helpful finding the right people for our needs. Developers were helpful not just with code but redesigning projects to make it work better.

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

I can't think of anything. It's a great company that we've been working with for over a decade.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Vice President of R&D at Watchfire Signs. Watchfire designs and engineers the best-looking, most durable outdoor LED signs, indoor displays, digital billboards, and video scoreboards, which help businesses and organizations communicate effectively, increase visibility and drive growth.

Headquartered in Danville, IL, Watchfire has manufactured electric signs for 90 years and LED displays since 1998 using meticulously sourced components from around the world. Watchfire has more than 65,000 LED displays in operation worldwide and has more digital billboard customers in the U.S. than any other brand. For information, please refer to the Company’s website at https://www.watchfiresigns.com.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Svitla Systems?

Our flagship Content Management Solution offering is a web application deployed in the cloud. Svitla was hired to help us with our ongoing efforts to revamp our cloud infrastructure for scalability and security.

SOLUTION

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

Svital contacted us through LinkedIn, describing their expertise and service offering. The talent pool they had available for us to consider and their willingness to initially engage SMEs to kick off the project influenced our decision.

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

The project required an analysis of the current state of our cloud infrastructure and then reviewing our security and scalability needs. Once this was completed, we engaged a DevOps consultant from Svitla to work along side our engineers to revamp our infrastructure.

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

One Engineer - DevOps; One Cloud SME for initial consultation and review.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With Svitla's help, we have upgraded our cloud infrastructure to support our growing customer base and improved our security posturing.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective - we stopped thinking we were working with a consultant.

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

Svitla's responsiveness and talent pool stand out. They were very easy to work with and open to taking inputs and suggestions as directed.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO and have worked with Svitla Systems over a number of years to build out our development and devops practice

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Svitla Systems, and what were your goals?

We hired Svitla Systems to augment the work we're doing over the years with multiple service providers around the world. Our goals have been to get closer to best practice across the SDLC industry, reduce single point of failure dependencies and move closer to a workable agile CI/CD chain model

SOLUTION

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

We have worked with multiple vendors over many years. All have a mix of desirable attributes. For us, the Svitla team has been consistent, responsible and willing to accept accountability with diversified distributed vendor teams across the globe.

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

All React, Django, Python and AWS hosting across the globe

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

The team is elastic with need - lower and upper bounds of 10 to 20 persons. Lead backend, Lead devops and senior developers across, backend, devops, frontend mobile iOS and Android

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our projects are typically on-time and our uptime stays around five nines

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

Team security and happiness are my first goal. Projects typically finish on time and agile / scrum processes drive everything. The team is self-organizing and their mandate is to drive to best practice and although not living on the cutting edge, be close enough so that they can pivot as direction comes their way

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

Svitla Systems has typically placed first class engineers on the project. They come up to speed fast. They get things done. They are not averse to pushing back and taking ownership and control

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

Software is an ever changing dynamic and I appreciate that I can push, question and get real answers and a sense of ownership. No organization and no person is perfect. In a no-blame and dynamic environment that is the best any organization can want or expect.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

VP of Software Developmnent Responsible for the management of software development, systems design and deployment for this global uniform manufacturing with 29 boutique retail locations in 9 states, multiple e-commerce websites and catalogs. Centrally located distribution center serving our international customer base and global operations for supply chain sourcing, production, and business support.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Svitla Systems, and what were your goals?

BI / ETL services and Data Warehouse

SOLUTION

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

Service, talent, and cost

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

To support our growth and backlog of tickets.

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

ETL Developers and Data Warehouse artilect

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Excellent talent

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

Agile Scrum and Jira ticket management

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

Their service and talent are the most impressive things about them.

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

no

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of engineering at Novantas, a fintech company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Svitla Systems?

We were having trouble finding people with the specific skillsets we were looking for. We decided to look for a company that would help with development, allowing us to scale up and down as needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Svitla Systems provided developers who worked alongside us. They've worked on multiple of our key products. On the big data side, their team used Scala. While implementing projects in Java and Angular, their team was able to assist with the UI, creating APIs, building a modern tier, and even helping on the database side.

What is the team composition?

We were able to get a team of full-stack of engineers. There are 4–5 developers.

How did you come to work with Svitla Systems?

We evaluated multiple vendors. We liked that their team overlapped time zones and fave us a better overlap with our engineering team. Our team was impressed with Svitla Systems’ technical resources and capabilities.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Svitla Systems began in February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working with Svitla Systems is easy. Their developers are smart and help us integrate efficiently.

How did Svitla Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

Since they worked directly with our engineering team, we work in an agile methodology to capture daily progress. They have access to our network, and we use GitLab. Communication has never been an issue. Their team is self-driven and motivated. We had one person that wasn’t performing well, and they were more than happy to manage that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing to me is their technical knowledge.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We gave them feedback when we wanted their top few candidates to perform the streamlining. They were able to incorporate those changes quickly. There’s nothing we need to be changed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Rainmaker, a Cendyn company, specializes in Revenue Management software in the Hospitality industry. I am the VP of Engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Svitla Systems?

We engaged Svitla in 2014 for a variety of projects as development resources to augment our onsite teams..

What were your goals for this project?

Rainmaker was looking to expand our development teams with cost-efficient, skilled talent.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our former CTO established the relationship.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The Svitla developers have been working mostly on front-end and middle-layer development of using C#, ASP.NET, and various web technologies.

What was the team composition?

The Svitla developers have been woven into our Agile Scrum teams, working side-by-side with our North America-based employees. The engagement has been long-term and successful.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

All of the developers have been skilled, good communicators, and very positive contributors to our products. They require minimal supervision, commensurate with their skill level.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The Svitla developers typically worked similar hours to our US-based team members. We utilized Skype, Teams, Jira, and e-mail for communication. The team integration has been very solid.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I am impressed with the consistent level of skilled software developers, as well as the stability of the engagement with each developer.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I have been very happy with our involvement with Svitla. If I were to make one suggestion, it would be to have better coordination of vacation between our management and theirs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the vice president of IT at an organization that provides financing for commercial buildings to upgrade their infrastructure and clean energy, which means investing in solar, HVAC, and various energy-efficient projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Svitla Systems?

We wanted to provide an online quoting tool that would help our clients understand the financing rate to give them a little bit more information about our programs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I worked with them for about two years, starting with 1–2 developers and then adding more resources as our needs expanded. I acted as a project and product manager and worked with the developers on the Ruby on Rails stack to build an online quoting tool.

I was providing wireframes and writing the user stories, but we quickly realized that we needed higher-fidelity UX designs. I found a local UX person to help form the user stories, and the development team implemented them into the product.

What is the team composition?

At the peak of the project, I worked with four developers and one QA resource from Svitla Systems.

How did you come to work with Svitla Systems?

One of their local reps stopped by our building, and it happened to be great timing because I was looking to hire a team. We’re north of San Francisco, so it’s sometimes tough to attract talent to here. With that in mind, I was looking at various outsourced options, and I decided to go with what Svitla Systems proposed. I worked with one developer at first, which was a great experience, and we continued to add more people to the project.

How much have you invested with them?

I'd estimate that we spent between $150,000–$200,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They built us an online tool that is still used today. The tool notwithstanding, we do not see as much success from a sales perspective as we’d like, so I had to discontinue the team. But the software they’ve put in place is still being used.

How did Svitla Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

We used an agile methodology, which required daily stand-ups and weekly retrospectives using Zoom. I acted as the project manager. We’d hold our meetings at the end of their day and the beginning of my day. Communication throughout the day was on Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everybody I worked with from Svitla Systems was great. They have a team of smart people who want to do the right thing for their clients. We had an open dialogue to the point that they were comfortable challenging our ideas and presenting new ones.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it was a great experience. I was sad when I had to disband the team because we worked really well together. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend that the client takes on the project management role. It’s hard to delegate that piece of it. Having a strong state-side project manager will go a long way.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the director of product development for a tax management company. Our company assists state and local governments in the processing of ad valorem taxes. Part of our services includes custom software solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Svitla Systems?

We hired Svitla systems as an extension of our team whose primary duty was the maintenance and support of existing applications.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals of the project were cost reduction on maintenance and support as well as freeing up internal resources for new initiatives.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After reviewing several options, Svitla best met our needs both from a professional as well as a cultural fit.

Describe the project in detail.

The project is on-going production support for established systems. This includes regular maintenance, minor changes as well as any enhancements.

What was the team composition?

The team has varied in size according to our needs. They have been able to be very responsive to changes in demand and have provided excellent full-stack developers in all cases.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Svitla has been instrumental in keeping our support costs within budget and works independently enough that our resources have been successful with new initiatives.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We use an agile method with daily stand-ups and a ticketing system with a development board. Teamwork and communication have been excellent.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We have been very impressed with the skill sets of the resources Svitla provides. They have learned our systems quickly and have taken pride and ownership of them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The entire experience has been seamless.