Trantor Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and COO of Osmos, a data collaboration platform. We help customers bring external data into their platforms and provide all the tooling required to deal with external data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trantor Inc.?

We wanted a more robust system that we could utilize and connections to other external systems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They help us with custom software development. They have their own environments to build upon, but we’d interface with them at certain points of integration. They operate independently to the point where we’d tell them what to do and they would build the project from our specifications. We would then integrate the system they developed into our product.

They use Java as their primary tool for development, and the areas of technology are cross applications and databases. It’s basically building connectors to external systems which they contain through Kubernetes.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with three developers and one project manager.

How did you come to work with Trantor Inc.?

I knew their leadership team so I contacted them about needing extra resources.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $50,000–$100,000 USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been great to work with because of their flexibility. They’re also quick to respond to changes on our roadmap and they move at a fairly good pace given the constraints— so far, they’ve been very adaptable to changes on our end.

How did Trantor Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Trantor Inc.’s project management is really good. We have a shared Slack channel and the project manager keeps us up to date on any changes on their end with resources and delivery delays — it’s like they’re an extension of our team. All our communication is done in real-time on Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have access to the leadership team and I like that I haven’t had to pull any strings to achieve that. I also like that they’re very responsive, reliable, and reasonably priced.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything because they’ve been very accommodating. However, they could be a little bit more vocal with their opinions, because we could benefit from their expertise and the patterns only they can see.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trantor Inc. is super flexible and they’ll bend over backwards to accommodate your needs — I would advise people not to take advantage of that and treat them as a part of your team. They’re also very respectful so you can’t go wrong working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and president of an online lending company. Contrary to others, we fund the deals that we close.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Trantor Inc.?

We were trying to find a good partner that would help us grow on the technology side. We needed someone that already had resources on the bench, could ramp up hiring, knew how we worked, and was trustworthy to develop the backend.

We had an internal team, but there were projects where we needed to step up. Since those projects weren’t full-time, we needed someone that had the elasticity to increase and reduce staffing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Trantor’s services are always around web and mobile application development. We use them as a team to staff projects or when we need temporary skill sets. Also, we’ve dealt with other developers whose headquarters are in India. When we were customizing the application, it was good to have a shop in their time zone so they could collaborate with them and make sure we got what we needed.

Basically, we engage with Trantor to take care of our customers and program faster. The goal is to increase staff rapidly so we can address our ambitious projects. We can grow our team internally, but it takes a lot of time to get through the hiring process. When we want to accomplish something quickly, it’s good to outsource it because they often have a shuttle program. They already know what we do, and it saves a lot of time.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with close to 100 people.

How did you come to work with Trantor Inc.?

I had a few run-ins in the past with other outsourcing companies. Trantor responded to an RFP for my previous company, and we gave them a shot. We met the CEO; he was very approachable and had a good relationship with his partner.

I used them at my previous company for 6–7 years, so I didn’t even put an RFP when I came here. I just called Pradeep (Managing Partner) and told him what I was going to do. There was never a question about who I was going to hire.

Also, one of the things that we enjoyed about them was that they gave us clear expectations. The first time we met them, Trantor told us right away that they couldn’t meet our requirements and that everyone who told us they could was just trying to get the contract. We told them to come back with something reasonable, and they came back with an amazing plan. That’s how we knew we had someone we could deal with.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $2 million–$3.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started development in January 2015, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had a low percentage turnover, which is very good compared to the industry. Also, they perform much better than the industry standard and have integrated well with our development team. Overall, it’d be hard to quantify their performance with metrics, but we’ve had some great successes. Our projects are getting done correctly and on time.

How did Trantor Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s one of their strong suits. They’re very involved in all the task management. Moreover, they’ve integrated into our team; we don’t treat them as if their opinion doesn’t matter. We ask for feedback, and our development teams go back and forth about improving development standards. Therefore, Trantor feels that their contributions matter.

We let them work during their daytime with a few hours of overlap. We have meetings at 4:00 a.m. on our side or late at night on their side interchangeably so the burden isn’t always on them. Also, their management always puts the employee first and takes good care of them. On our side, we identify key employees and make sure they stay happy to keep them.

Additionally, we had people coming on-site before COVID-19. We’d visit them in India, and some of them would come here and visit us so they could see their development effort at work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take pride in what they do. They like to see a finished working product and a pleased customer. To them, it’s not just a contract. Way down to the developers, all the team feels proud about the products they deliver, and we celebrate that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Due to COVID-19, we had to work differently, which put a challenge on many things. However, it’s been a great relationship in general.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat whoever you’re hiring with dignity and respect, no matter where they reside. Moreover, make them feel that their work matters and makes a difference in what you do every day. Let them be part of the team while they work with you.