Talentica Software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Engineering Manager of a software company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Makes software products and services for architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Talentica Software to accomplish?

• Maintain legacy admin software
• Grow to be responsible for more of that legacy product

SOLUTION

How did you find Talentica Software?

Other

Why did you select Talentica Software over others?

Other

How many teammates from Talentica Software were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The team was composed entirely of Talentica contractors for some number of years. I began managing the team in January of 2022. The team managed the admin tooling backend, which consisted of multiple Python Flask services with Postgres and Elasticsearch storage. These services composed a service-oriented architecture, running on Kubernetes, using an Istio service mesh and deployed using Spinnaker. 

The team was also responsible for working with the Jenkins based CI/CD pipeline. During the last year and a half, the team took on additional responsibilities such as the GDPR request processing tooling and other additional legacy product features. The team's technical work consisted of clearing technical debt, rearchitecting services where needed. They responded to bugs seen by users, and requirements from our security team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• The team did a excellent job maintaining a number of services, so much so that they have been offered full time positions and we plan to grow the team and give them further responsibilities.

What was your primary form of communication with Talentica Software?

Virtual Meeting

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

They managed their projects relatively on time. No more delays than tends to be seen with software development. Coordination was not always trivial given the large timezone difference between IST and US Pacific time, but they were responsible and dedicated, learning and adapting well in the time that I worked with them.

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

Talentica was the first contracting company that I have worked with as a manager, and the first one that I worked with for such a long time. I was impressed with the commitment from the employees on the team, and the regular checkins I got from Talentica managers. It was a great working relationship, and that is why we chose to hire them on as full time employees.

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

The biggest issue was distance and timezone, which led to some inconvenience with communication and fully connecting them and sharing learnings with the teams in the Americas.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of a startup focused in the Regulatory Technology space. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Talentica Software, and what were your goals?

Talentica was originally engaged to build out a proof-of-concept and of a RegTech automation platform used by government regulators. They were engaged before I joined the company.

SOLUTION

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

Talentica came on with a full service project team including, design, frontend, backend, qa, and devops team members.

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

They built out the initial version of our platform working closely with our internal stakeholders and customer discovery partner to design and deliver the solution.

The solution was built with React on the frontend, Java Springboot middleware, Postgres on the backend, and leveraged Camunda as a BPM solution to power the workflows.

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

We grew our engagement with Talentica adding developers, software engineering management, and QA resources to support our efforts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When I started there were definitely some challenges, much of this was on us as an organization however, not having clear requirements or understanding of what we needed to build to.

Once I started, I worked closely with the Talentica team to address the issues which were holding us back. Together we launched the initial public version of our product in 2022 and have continued working to build on it ever since.

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

Overall the Development, QA, and Engineering/Project management teams have been excellent!

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

They did an excellent job working with me to adapt processes and deliverables to establish an effective working relationship with the new engineering leadership.

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

Where I would provide specific feedback to improve is for them to stop operating their DevOps/CloudOps resources as a separate team outside of the project team. Their DevOps practice definitely need to be better integrated with their project teams and overall matured as a part of their organization. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Roostify provides a digital home lending platform that transforms the traditional, time-consuming mortgage process into a streamlined, modern experience for borrowers and lenders alike. I am the Director of Production Operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Talentica Software, and what were your goals?

We needed to augment our Engineering team so that we could deliver on products and features in our Roadmap

SOLUTION

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

I was not a part of the selection process. However, I believe part of the deciding factor was the fact that Talentica could spin up Ruby on Rails engineers quicker than if we were to hire onshore.

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

The scope of work entailed augmenting our Engineering team which was broken down into different product verticals. Each product vertical is responsible for a specific component of the Roostify platform. Each team had their own roadmaps and projects/features to work on. Ruby on Rails was the technology used earlier on, then we also started using Java. Each team had offshore developers and qa engineers. We also have offshore devops engineers who could service the offshore engineering team.

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

We have a project manager/lead who oversees the entire engagement. I specifically interface with the 2 QA leads.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In general, features/products/bug fixes have been delivered in a timely fashion. Like any Development team, there are going to be bugs that need to be addressed in the process but we have a fairly efficient and repeatable process to address the defects.

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

Their style is Agile. Slack is the communication tool of choice which results in timely responses to queries asked overnight. Communication also happens through JIRA.

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

How accountable they are for the work. I was impressed by how they all personally felt like they were a part of our company and not just contractors.

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

Provide creative solutions to the "follow the sun" model (i.e. If a task was miscommunicated, we have to wait 24 hours to rectify) which is the most challenging facet of any engagement with offshore resources. Provide better overall engagement "health" or status to Engineering leadership

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am sales head for a consulting organization. We are located in India. We are handling a portfolio of more than 3bn dollars of construction projects. Our services include consulting and project management software for the project duration which is around 3-4 years .

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Talentica Software, and what were your goals?

We were using existing scheduling software's and developed our skin on top of it to help. But in case of complex and big projects we found that the existing PM tools are not defined for real world which have resource limitations as all of them work on CPM basis (unlimited resource scenario). SO we had to break through the existing ranks and develop a new logic, which also required development of entirely new software. We hired talentica to develop the product from the algo and dats structure we had defined. It had to be done in quick time so that we don't loose our existing customers

SOLUTION

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

The basis of selecting talentica was their approach towards understanding our problem and defining the most optimum strategy, which gave us confidence that it can be done. In all the other cases, we and the software vendors were speaking two different languages and it was very hard to get the requirements through them

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

Major scope was divided into 4 parts:

1. Understanding our requirement and algo, which was difficult since it was completely new and no reference was available.
2. Develop a new data structure, use our existing patented scheduling algorithm over it and produce an entirely new software.
3. All this has to be done without disrupting any existing features as the product was already in use with several clients who are reluctant to change.
4. Since it was new product, a lot of training manuals and videos were needed along with regular extended support form talentica side, till the handholding of our core support team was complete

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

There were 8 people engaged as core team, 1 Project Manager, 1 QA manager, 4 developers and 2 testing resources. Rest would come and go depending on the need

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was completed within time, and the first launch was done to the customer on the date we promised. It was a big relief. The best part was that although we changed the requirements in between, and panicked that the product wouldn't come through, but talentica always was calm and reassuring in their approach. I like their approach of focusing on finishing what we have started instead of starting everything. Finishing module before compromising the scope and not starting the other module, forced us to think and rethink our requirement, which reduced a lot of re work

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

Their project management was great and since we are also pioneer in the same field, it was done very systematically. Talentica was also open to understand our PM techniques and implement it, which helped both of us. Communication tools were Slack, Jira etc.

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

Transparency about the issues and status of their works, everyone was approachable and not only the PM. Early warning so that we can take proactive actions, instead of bringing it up at last moment. I think the time they take to plan the work meticulously was very helpful because it removed a lot of doubts which would have caused rework

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

I think the last part of training manuals and videos were not really great. Although they are working on it, but that is something which can be definitely improved upon

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder, FinTech

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Talentica Software, and what were your goals?

Goal was to develop a US-based FinTech App (incl. website, iOS App, Android App).

SOLUTION

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

Was referred to Talentica by a friend. Independently evaluated them by visiting their office in Pune (India) and meeting their leadership team. Prior to Talentica, we had 2 bad experiences in working with outsourced software development agencies, so knew exactly what we wanted and did not want in a technology partner. Talentica gave us an initial trial period, which allowed us to work with the team on a short 3 month project. We were blown away by the capability and delivery of the team, and decided to onboard them on a multi-year engagement.

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

Talentica helped us develop a US-based FinTech application, and related marketing site. We're now working with them on scoping out the iOS and Android App.

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

1 Project Manager. 1 Technical Lead. 4 Full Stack Developers. 2 QA. 2 UI. 2 UX.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In less than 12 months, the team developed a FinTech application. Our marketing site gets over 50,000 visitors each month. We served over 500 clients, and are growing at a 10% rate month-over-month.

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

We used Slack, Zoom, Jira and Github for project management. We setup regular weekly check-ins (twice a week) to discuss functional requirements, and provide feedback on technical build. We designed 2 week sprints, and scheduled planned build items during those sprints.

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

Team is extremely professional. They have a high-level of energy and enthusiasm. They are aligned with our mission, and passionate about building a FinTech application. The team was also very communicative, and easy to work with during the project.

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

Retention on the team has been a little bit of challenge. With the India tech industry booming, it's been difficult to retain a consistent outsourced / contract-based team, as traditional retention strategies (e.g. offering stock options to employees, or corporate benefits / perks) don't exist. The Talentica leadership team recognizes the challenge, and is has been all ears, and in trying to help find a solution.

BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a data security and governance solutions provider in the US.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Talentica Software?

We were having some challenges with the SaaS product. We needed a company to help us develop custom software, so we brought in Talentica.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project involves multiple phases. We started with an MVP then expanded into core product development. We provide the design of the solution, while Talentica oversees the architecture and development of our solution stack. The team conducts tests and ensures that everything adheres to industry standards as they continue to enhance our core product’s features. We mainly use Python and AWS. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 3–8 people, depending on the scope of work. There are back- and frontend software engineers as well as an architect, a project lead, a QA specialist, an accounts manager, and a DevOps engineer.

How did you come to work with Talentica Software?

They were referred by a friend of mine who had used their services in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2019, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been able to turn our ideas into a viable solution. Talentica has been very helpful from the beginning up to the market stage.

How did Talentica Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They exceeded the budget, but they were able to offset some of the related challenges. They performed above our expectations. 

We use Jira and communicate via Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Talentica is attentive to details and comes up with good ideas for the solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing they could improve is their resource onboarding time. It usually takes 6-10 weeks, and shortening that time would be very helpful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have regular cadence with Talentica and be upfront with your expectations. Also, make sure your technology stack matches your product vision.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Spinwheel Solutions, Inc. is based out of the Silicon Valley Bay area in California. We’re a technology product company operating in the financial services space. I’m a co-founder and the CTO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Talentica Software?

We’re building our core product with the Talentica Software team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Most of our product roadmap is being executed by Talentica Software. They represent most of our team. I only have two more people based in the US. Our product is an API platform that helps companies manage and pay loans. It connects to all the loan services out there, starting with student debt and expanding into credit cards and mortgages.

Any company can use the platform to manage and pay loans, and they can make it available to their end-users. The platform offers API connection and white-label drop-in modules, which partners can customize and embed into their own apps.

What is the team composition?

We have a team of 12 people on their side, and we’re working on a time and materials basis. We’re planning to increase that team significantly, to around 40 people.

They’re providing front- and backend developers, QA resources, one DevOps engineer, UI/UX designers, and an account manager. I’ve worked with Sanjoy (VP of Engineering) on strategic items. Less frequently, I’ve worked with their business development lead, mostly at the start of the engagement.

How did you come to work with Talentica Software?

I’ve been working with Talentica Software for the last five years, and Spinwheel is the fourth or fifth company that I’ve worked with them for. I initially found them at a conference in 2015, when I was doing my first startup. I met Manjusha (Co-Founder & CTO) and found that she had strong and deep expertise in the specialized needs I had. Their team stood out to me.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost so far is around $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project started in March 2020, and it’s ongoing. We’ll continue to enhance the product as we take it to the market. The current roadmap extends way into the next 2–3 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the platform being created is one indicator, in terms of how many issues we’re seeing in production and testing. Secondly, it’s their team’s ability to deliver on the required timelines. We have some technically challenging requirements, and the third measure is whether or not the team has been able to solve those.

Talentica Software has exceeded our expectations on all three fronts. They’ve met quality and technology challenges and make sure they’re always delivering on time. They’re always available, and the dedication is there. I’ve worked with development companies from all over the world — India, Poland, Australia, and the UK — and Talentica Software’s team is much better than all the others I’ve worked with.

We’re a fast-growing company, and we need the ability to ramp up the team quickly, according to our needs. We’re expanding a team of 10–12 to 40–50 people, and that’s been going a bit slow. Other than that, Talentica Software has been fantastic.

We’ve had multiple tight timelines related to our customers, and Talentica Software’s team has put in a lot of hours. They’ve made themselves available over the weekend to make sure we delivered on time. That’s given us the confidence that, if they make a commitment, they’ll try their best to keep it.

We’ve had some technical challenges with security and API integration, but the team has risen up to those challenges and made most of those integrations feasible.

How did Talentica Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re still a small team, so I’m involved in the day-to-day activities. We haven’t had any significant challenges. They react and respond well if I need anything, and they manage the team according to our expectations.

Most of the communication between the US and the offshore team is through a Slack channel. We have one-and-a-half to two-hour video conferences with the entire team every morning. Between those two, I believe we’re able to communicate effectively.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive part to me is the quality of their team. All their engineers and developers are above average. They have the skillset to do the job and are able to solve diverse and difficult technology issues. They meet their commitments.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One of the challenges we’ve had relates to supporting the rapid growth of the team. Finding appropriate resources can take a long time. If Talentica Software is going to work with other startups, it’d be beneficial if they could align with that growth.

Secondly, their entire team is based offshore and their working model is to take up the entire engineering function of the client company. Working offshore can make things very difficult because all our customers are in the US. It can be difficult to support them and work on integration challenges, from a time zone perspective. It would be helpful if Talentica Software had a support function that could be made available in different time zones.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I’ve referred many of my colleagues and friends to them. If the client is in a different time zone, they need to make sure that there’s a good process in place to support customers. If the client is experiencing rapid growth, they need to work with Talentica Software to make sure that they understand what the expectations are.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CarBevy is a startup focused on creating a better buying experience for car buyers. Thru our marketplace, we allow users to find cars locally, provide price insight and transparency and allow users to negotiate on the car without visiting the dealership. I lead the Product and Strategy at CarBevy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Talentica Software, and what were your goals?

The project was to create a double-sided marketplace for car buyers. The goal was to have the MVP ready for rollout; which was completed successfully.

SOLUTION

How did you select Talentica Software and what were the deciding factors?

We were looking to partner with a firm that fitted 4 core criteria, and Talentica exceeded all our criteria.

1. Previously provided services for the early-stage marketplace.
2. Experienced in creating a double-sided marketplace.
3. Skills
4. Cost

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

Scope:

1. Create a prototype
2. Set up dev/test/prod environment in AWS
3. Payment integration

Develop and test platform Key Deliverables:

1. Prototype
2. Set up the environment/integrations/ infrastructure

Complete Product development Tech used:

1. JS reach
2. PreGre SQL

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

We had a team of 5 developers. The tech lead was Abhinandan Bansal, who was the key point for our contacts. The other core dev members included; Siva Krishan; Maitri Dalal, Vikas Sahu; Vinil Pansare.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

1. The product was completed on time and within the budget.
2. The team was extraordinary in their approach to understand the business context and suggest scalable design solutions.

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

We had a team meeting 3 times a week to discuss the progress and blockers. As goes for a most early-stage startup; most communication was thru email, and tracking was via Jira.

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

The most impressive thing about Talentica Software was the team, their tech skills; their ability to understand the business context, their ownership mentality to challenge our assumptions and approach; and be able to implement a solution at speed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Using more collaborative tools would be helpful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an engineering manager for a large software development company focused on the enterprise technology market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Talentica Software, and what were your goals?

Our company uses Talentica engineers both to complement in-house development teams on certain projects, and to own engineering responsibilities on certain projects end-to-end.

SOLUTION

How did you select Talentica Software and what were the deciding factors?

Leadership in our company had a pre-existing relationship and positive past experiences with Talentica.

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

We trust Talentica to provide high-quality engineering talent across a wide array of technologies, including backend, web, and mobile (iOS and Android) platforms.

When Talentica engineers are embedded in cross-functional teams, they play a role similar to what we would expect from an in-house engineer -- contributing to all parts of the project lifecycle. This includes working with Product Managers to narrow and polish project scope, to leading project implementation on a platform, to monitoring release success, and identifying potential issues post-deployment.

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

Within my team, I've worked with up to 15 Talentica team members at one time. Their positions include Backend, Web, iOS, and Android engineer. In addition, I have worked with the Engineering Manager, and QA leads.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Talentica teams have taken ownership of important aspects of our business, and built high quality improvements efficiently and independently.

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

Members of the team are typically hard working and adaptable. Feedback is heard and accounted for. I would most often communicate with the engineering manager. In my experience, Talentica team members are easy to communicate with, both verbally and in written form.

When timelines need to be adjusted, the need is raised promptly and without shying away from tough subjects. In the few cases where urgent issues or need to expedite development arose, the team was willing to put in the extra effort to accomplish a successful outcome.

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

Their team members are smart, hard-working, and humble. Over time, as our trust grew, we found increasing returns on our investment in onboarding and working with Talentica team members.

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

No areas for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of Regology, an AI driven regulatory compliance platform

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Talentica Software, and what were your goals?

Brought on board Talentica after graduating from YCombinator during the Summer of 2018. I was looking at an offshore partner who can help accelerate the product engineering. It started off as a small engagement where a developer resource was expected to codevelop with the CTO. Soon Talentica is entrusted with the overall engineering, DevOps, and UX responsibilities.

SOLUTION

How did you select Talentica Software and what were the deciding factors?

I have received quite a few emails about offshore services from various companies. However, I was looking for a company that has the experience of working with younger startups, as their needs a very different. Initially, I was skeptical about involving an offshore company due to timezone and coordination constraints. To test the waters, I worked with a developer for a month on a paid trial basis and I started feeling good about the quality of the code from the developer.

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

Scope of the work includes building the first versions of the product (Frontend and backend). Technologies used: Express, Angular, Python, Scikit, and React.

Here are some sample deliverables:

1. Build product features and major components in angular js and python
2. Deployment scripts for AWS DevOps operation (Ansible and Terraform)
3. Define UX mocks for the product features and overall UX harmonization
4. Build data science algorithms with measurable outcomes I am very satisfied with the outcomes so far.

In the beginning, we were having a daily scrum. Soon, I reduced the frequency to thrice a week. The team would do the following:

1. Review and estimate the sprint backlog
2. Provide key architectural decisions
3. Implement the development item QA based out of India and the US would do the testing and coordinate with the engineering team.

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

Started off with a developer and scaled up the team to 7 engineering resources.

• 1 Architect 
• 4 developers
• 1 Data scientist
• 1 UX
• 1 DevOps

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As a young startup, I found hiring great talent as one of the most difficult things. Talentica sourced its engineers from some of the best universities and they came on-board in no time.

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

Team uses JIRA for scrum and bug tracking and Confluence for documentation. Communication happened over email, zoom, and slack. I used to visit Pune once every 6-9 months to network with the team (PreCovid).

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

Being helped many bay area startups, they had experience in a wide range of technologies and processes. This cross-pollination helped us shorten the learning curve when trying out new technologies.

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

The only service that I couldn't find at Talentica was end-user product documentation. I hope they offer this service soon.