Avenga

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the program manager at Fidelity International, a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Avenga?

We needed help optimizing our cloud sales.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Avenga provides us with cloud consultation and resources we lack within our team. They help us build a number of cloud solutions to help us onboard strategic data we can implement into our data lake platform.

We start by presenting our requirements to them and giving them an overview of the new data we're looking to onboard.

We then come up with a design solution which usually involves understanding how the data will be set, how often it'll be updated, and how it'll be consumed once onboarded.

Moreover, they provide off-site support and utilize AWS, Snowflake, Bitbucket, and NiFi to build custom solutions and troubleshooting support.

What is the team composition?

We work with a senior AWS engineer, junior AWS engineer, and DevOps engineer.

How did you come to work with Avenga?

I joined a year after they engaged with our company.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested over $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They deliver their solutions successfully, and the data is onboarded and consumed by the relevant internal stakeholders — they also provide documentation we hand over to other support teams.

How did Avenga perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a fantastic job managing the entire project. They're well-versed with the AGILE methodology and accustomed to creating tasks on JIRA.

They also attend daily standup calls, provide regular updates, and consistently adhere to our established timelines. We typically use Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Confluence for communications.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're impressed with their knowledge, work ethic, and punctuality. They're also very good when it comes to conducting knowledge transfer sessions before completing each project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything they need to improve on because we have experienced any problems working with them. They're very open to feedback, which makes them a robust partner for our organization.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to provide them with enough information about the project and what you want to achieve, to get the most out of your engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Radium Capital provides Research and Development Loan funding to businesses in Australia and New Zealand. We provide loans up to $10 million. As the CTO I provide ongoing strategic platform guidance to the business to ensure our customers can do business easily and without concern for their data safety.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We use Avenga's services to provide us with project management, technology advisory and Salesforce development. Our goals are to continue to provide customers and internal users with functionality that improves their daily workflows and operational needs.

SOLUTION

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

Avenga is well placed with regards to time zones, has excellent references from other clients, and I have used them previously for non-Salesforce related projects. Choosing Avenga was critical to our speed of implementation requirements and quality of service requirements.

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

They designed a Salesforce based solution to provide loan funds collection management using tried and tested ideation, discovery, and delivery methodologies. Avenga used our existing project management solution - Jira - and delivered the source code for their work directly to our Salesforce development and production environments. Avenga continue to provide insights to manage our Salesforce instance and are now working with our entire group of companies.

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

There were 5 people in the core team - their roles included:

• Solution architect
• Scrum master
• Senior and Junior Developers
• QA Specialists
• User Experience Practitioners

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to plan the deprovisioning of our existing Loan Collection Management system which was unstable and had too many manual processes. Avenga always delivered on time and to budget.

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

The way Avenga were engaged by us made it feel as though they were simply an extension of our own team - they understood the business, were focussed on outcomes as much as we were, and they were not simply trying to find new ways to uncover revenue for themselves -- instead focussing on delivering cost savings to Radium Capital.

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

Avenga really makes it feel like you are working with an existing internal team.

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

None that come to mind

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a fintech company that operates in the accounts receivable, supply chain, and other B2B financing products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Avenga?

We had a complex platform that needed to be completely re-architected. It was built inside the Salesforce portal as a PaaS (platform as a service), so we needed a specific skill set.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Avenga provides custom software development services. They’ve developed an application using the Salesforce platform. It’s an internal-facing application with some components that face external users, and they’ve revamped the existing system. 

Initially, we developed the requirements and new architecture. We’ve used many of the Salesforce-provided functions. Avenga has done a bit of coding, but we’ve also used declarative automation, customer customization, better metadata, and so on. All in all, the project has lots of complications and a very complex workflow.

What is the team composition?

We just have one Salesforce developer.

How did you come to work with Avenga?

They were a referral. The Salesforce environment required a broad and deep knowledge of the industry and our application, and Avenga was the only resource we could find.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve done three major and dozens of minor rollouts, all of which have been successful.

How did Avenga perform from a project management standpoint?

They use our project management tools, and we mainly communicate through Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their resources and talents are outstanding. Their bench is full of experts; they provide a service we couldn’t get anywhere else.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, their business continuity plans are flawless. It would’ve been reasonable if their service was impacted due to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, but there hasn’t been an interruption.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their experts. Their team is highly qualified, and you should trust their advice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the VP Quality Engineering and Release Management

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Avenga?

Avenga is one of our partners helping us implement our product's roadmap as a team's capacity extension .

SOLUTION

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

We started our partnership in April last year, with only a few resources. 

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

Following our first experience, with quite good feedback from teams such as; qualified developers and testers, good soft skills in terms of communication and engagement. Since we never stopped expanding our collaboration, currently we do have 22 HCs.

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

22 HCs, Daily contact with all team members, and with the Account Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We do particularly appreciate their reactivity to ramp up, also their ability to manage the turnover when this happens ; a notice in advance, with overlapping periods of time, and a minimum of team velocity impact. Most of the resources are based in Ukraine, after the recent events, they relocated few members to Poland, and they are still seeking to build a shadow team in Poland. This looks like a challenge for them since the Polish market is also impacted and under pressure. They do care really well about their people, which is really key in their engagement to get them motivated and productive for their customers.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Daily collaboration as they are pat of the same Agile teams

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

In conclusion, I do really recommend Avenge as a partner you can rely on. The main challenge is with Ukrainian ressources location, which is in a war zone unfortunately, with the risk associated with that. Hope this is useful for your consideration.

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

Relocation challenges they are facing while requested to relocate ressources from Ukraine following recent events

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Grupo Sancor Seguros has been in the market for 76 years and is an economic group that manages 27 companies in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

In our main operation in Argentina, we have been the most important insurance company in the country for several years, being in 1st place in the production ranking as well as having the recognition of our commercial network as being the best insurance company in the country in terms of solvency, transparency, and honesty.

We operate in all branches of property insurance, people, health, and work risks. We have a digital bank called Banco del Sol and many other companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The largest company in the Sancor Seguros Group, which contributes approximately 53% of insurance premiums, is called Prevention ART. It is the main ART in Argentina with a market share of 20% of the market, double that of those who support us in the ranking.

For many years, ART has been a pioneer in the relationship with clients and companies through self-management. The said self-management is more than 10 years old and required an update and complete restyling.

Since it is one of the critical mission systems for ART, we needed to go through a very challenging process with a strategic partner that can accompany us, understand us, comply and add value from technology and industry knowledge. Moreover, the partner should adapt to our needs, and accompany us on a new path, showing us the way through empathy and permanent dialogue. They should also be willing to continue to accompany us in the future.

SOLUTION

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

After an extensive decision process, wherein the main national and international technology providers participated, where much of our responsibility was to understand the dimension of the solution that we wanted to develop, we decided on IncluIT for many reasons that were key factors:

• They did not come to sell us professional services and then understand the problem, but rather they came to listen to us, to understand our needs, also to listen to the inconsistencies that they showed us with great patience and respect to rethink.
• They proposed us a work methodology in total coherence with our needs, which despite being disruptive for us, they dedicated the necessary time to show us that it would be the one that best suits our needs and the best to deliver the results we expected.
• They were always very present, and open to co-create with us.
• They presented a team of professionals who were able to attend to each query from all of our internal IT specialists, and convey confidence in each layer of the solution that required specific knowledge and experience.
• The honesty and total transparency allowed us to build trust and links that could transcend beyond this solution and consider them long-term partners.

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

The scope was the end-to-end redesign of the ART Prevention self-management used by Clients and their different roles with different needs within a company, for example: Employer, HR Department, Occupational Physician, Administration. Also the insurance intermediary and internal resources of the company.

IncluIT brought a very important concept that was installed within the company and today it continues to deepen at the organizational level, which is the ONE TEAM. This configuration allowed us to grow in a process of technical and functional integration between IT and the various business partners, increasing agility, achieving safe and quality evolutionary deliveries in the short term, and providing us with strong added value.

IncluIT covered all the stages of the Design and Development process. Starting with the creation of a solution that meets the needs of the business, designing the experience of the different users (user research, interaction design, information architecture, flow design, user experience development, ux validation, etc. ), prototyping and validation, cover security layers, middleware, component development, integration, testing, UAT, project management, agility coaching, and team building.

All the dimensions that allowed us to create a high-quality product for ourselves and for the user, meet deadlines and make successful deliveries allowed us to make a leap in quality in customer service.

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

On the part of the supplier, more than 20 people worked on average. The staff was growing depending on the stage of the project.

On behalf of ART Prevention, some 10 people were also directly participating, and partially more than 20 gave support to each need of the project.

Additionally, due to the relevance of the project, all ART and technology managers were always present, closely following the project and actively participating.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We achieved the successful delivery of a product that accompanies the ART process, contributing and experiencing the One Team concept together. Adding value to the product, through the development of a secure application, with a renewed user experience. During this process, we grew in agility to achieve quality evolutionary deliverables in the short term.

From the point of view of results and feedback, our clients expressly recognized the improvement of the tool both in usability and in new star features that emerged from research with users, which allowed them to manage much more efficiently obtaining information, self-management without the need for telephone communication or writing an email and waiting for a person's response.

This had a direct impact on greater satisfaction, and a reduction in response times, calls, and emails resulting in a reduction in the internal cost of operation and customer service.

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

The management style was one of the main characteristics of this project.

IncluIT promoted the inclusion and evolution of agility in IT projects, which had been difficult to implement. It brought an adoption and coaching model that we call ONE TEAM that allowed us to adopt it painlessly, quickly see the benefits, reduce friction, make decisions faster, include key people at the conversation table, be agile in decisions, in the communication, analysis, and product delivery.

The IncluIT people who were in charge of the project were decisive for the success of this solution, which was not only a technical solution, but also a network of human relationships that had to be aligned to create value and think of a solution that would create value for our clients, and for that IncluIT made the difference.

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

The project management, the issue management, the way to generate internal dialogues to make decisions, the way in which he introduced us to agility and showed us the way to implement it during the project and without great pain and the spirit of collaboration to co-create solutions that add value.

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

• At the beginning of the project, we realized that it is better to make prototypes including UX to avoid future changes. We quickly adopted it and it greatly improved the process.
• The members of the project have priority in the project and the rest of their activities are secondary. We managed to handle it with internal difficulties but we took care of it.
• Activate and deactivate PO (key user) (sector referents) so that they can make quick decisions.
• Recording each change request, no matter how small, was a process that we included to give visibility to the work of the development team and increase the scope.
• Participate in Information Security in all progress meetings and keep the thread.
• Have a help desk available ready for the exit of the project and apply Change Management techniques to make it effective.
• The architecture issues must be defined in advance, the internal architecture team must be at the table from the beginning even if they do not consider it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the COO of an online software company. We aim to be a marketplace that allows people to exchange services easily.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Perfectial to help build out our online custom software. Our main goal was to build an mvp as quick as possible.

SOLUTION

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

Perfectial was selected via our CEO. Major deciding factors for us was availability, communication and costs. All we're met with Perfectial at the time of setting up the partnership.

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

Perfectial helped us begin the process of building our code, as well as creating the UX and UI for our mvp. Project steps were based on the desired functionality of the platform. Some engineers even went beyond this to help us with other issues we incurred along the way. Technologies that we integrated to help achieve the aim of our website we're twilio, pubnub, stripe etc.

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

The maximum number of team members that we worked with were 3 people. One senior engineer, one engineer and a senior ux designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We almost completed the mvp for our website on the development side. UX was completely finished by the end of our time with Perfectial.

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

The project management was really great. We really appreciated their ability to be so flexible. On a daily basis, the team communicated over teams and slack. Tasks were delegated through platforms such as trello and github.

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

What I found the most impressive was their devotion to making sure our needs we're met. They understood our demands, and tried their upmost to fulfill these. They we're also super communicative, easy to reach at all times and had a positive attitude through out the whole project.

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

The quality of the work achieved by their team was great and we are extremely happy with them. The only recommendation I have, is to create a better process to onboard using testing (our requirement). That being said, I could tell they really tried their absolute best to bring in top talent for us whilst using this method.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Product Owner of a multi-CPG B2B that includes an ecommerce. Coca-Cola Andina is a company dedicated to the commercialization of beverages and other products. With participation in markets such as Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Design a microservices architecture with a price engine that can be consumer by any CPG and Frontend. Design a responsive web product for B2B

SOLUTION

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

The selection process by certifying between several candidates. The main factors were experience in AWS solutions, project duration times.

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

Design a cloud architecture in AWS multi CPG and develop an ecommerce with models of discounts, taxes and calculation of the final price of the order. Integration with SAP. Using technologies like

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

In relation to the collaborators that participate in the project, we can name a Scrum Master, Cloud Architect, Devops, backend, frontend, QA testers, UX / UI design, Google Tag Managger Analyst and DataStudio

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Deliverables that meet IT and Business expectations

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

Scrum and Agile methodologies with their ceremonies and communication channels such as Slack and WhatsApp

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

We're impressed by their level of commitment, the quality of the collaborators and their professionalism. An excellent work environment is encouraged and breathed. The focus on meeting the proposed objectives sprint by sprint

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

Facilitate communication with the business team to consolidate the team with greater speed

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior director of revenue operations for a media software company that builds software to help television stations with traditional and digital broadcasting. I work in the division responsible for digital television distribution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clearcode?

One of our digital products is a video player. Like any other technology, our software can integrate with third-party solutions, but we also offer our own video player. When we provide our video player, we can ensure that our systems all work together, but with third-party systems, sometimes issues occur.  

We work with publishing partners with their own video players, but some don't and look to us for suggestions. However, our video player product needed some upgrades — we needed a partner to rebuild the product who understood digital advertising technology. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clearcode completely rebuilt our video player system from the ground up. We worked on it internally for a while, but it had never been a major focus. The video player is more of an auxiliary service we offer, and it has been on the same codebase for a long time. 

We provided Clearcode with a full project proposal that outlined what we wanted the player to do, how it needed to work, and the program intricacies so it could connect with our core platform. 

They came back to us with a rough outline of the timeline, costs, and resource allocation. They then built the video player and included the features we wanted. 

Since initial completion, the Clearcode team has done a few maintenance updates. 

What is the team composition?

We consistently worked with 4–5 teammates, and over the entire project, we connected with about 10 teammates. One teammate managed the business relationship and there was also a centralized project manager, a few engineers, and QA teammates. 

How did you come to work with Clearcode?

One of the senior executives on our team did due diligence on a lot of different firms — they shopped around for a vendor that had the right knowledge set we were looking for, could put together good work and had a competitive price.

From there, Clearcode was recommended to our team. After our first two interactions we were pleased with the project's direction, so we stayed with them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Clearcode from March–September 2021.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There aren't any specific metrics at this point. We're still rolling out a couple of features to our partners and haven't been able to measure their impact yet. 

However, we've been very happy with the quality of the work — our CTO is impressed with the quality of the codebase and the way it was architected. 

How did Clearcode perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team approaches challenges well. The collaboration between us was great, and turnarounds were very quick — we'd get about five codebase updates in a given week. 

As part of the QA process, Clearcode built a testing and QA site where they would update all changes made for each subversion of the codebase — that allowed my team to easily track what was being done and its impact. We also shared a Jira board. 

At any given time, we knew precisely what the Clearcode team was working on, their priorities, and when items were going to be delivered — we tracked project progress very well across the entire duration of the project. 

We had a weekly status call where they provided us with updates and pulled us into particular aspects of the project to collaborate on. When we did collaborate over the phone, the solution would be implemented by the next meeting, and we'd be able to see the results. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Other firms often don't communicate as much as Clearcode did, they'll go dark and a client will get an update every month or so. But Clearcode was great at communicating and updated us regularly. Their quality of work was really great as well. 

If we decide to do any enhancements to the codebase, we're happy to go back and work with Clearcode again. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would have liked it if they'd been more upfront and communicative about the billing process. We worked on an hourly basis, and there wasn't a great way to track how large are tab was growing until the end of each month. They need a better communication process there. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients need to ensure that they have a consistent engineering resource throughout the process. 

Their company is structured so that they constantly shift engineers around, which can be difficult because then clients are working with someone new who hasn't worked with the project before. However, Clearcode does do a good job onboarding new resources, but it's never quite the same as working with one person who has been on a project from the beginning.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a world leader in the Arts sector, based in London, UK. I head up the Digital Products team, responsible for all digital touchpoints with our global audiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to augment our in house team with an additional team of software engineers, quality assurance, delivery managers and designers. Initially we engaged with Perfectial on a small part of our digital offering to deliver a discrete piece of work. The relationship grew organically from there.

SOLUTION

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

We looked at a number of vendors, eventually shortlisting four based on their responses to our RFP. We ranked them on a number of standard factors including technical skills and design capabilities.

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

The Perfectial team augment our in house team, aligning with our ways of working, led by our people. We try to work on products, rather than projects, so the team shift focus according to our needs across our suite of products. They are able to offer candidates to suit all of our needs but our tech stack largely consists of JavaScript (in various flavours) right now.

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

We have a standing team which consists of a mixture of junior, midweight and senior developers (some fullstack), QAs, a delivery manager and a UX designer. Occasionally this flexes up or down, based on our needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The deliverables are consistently to a high standard. The team's excellent support has helped us build our credentials internally with our stakeholders.

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

The team aligned with our existing ways of working, which was perfect. They also run their own internal stand-ups to make sure they are aligned and feel part of the wider Perfectial community. We use Slack and Jira as our standard toolset, with Teams for video calls within the product teams day to day. The combination works well. We also have weekly checkpoints with our project/delivery/account manager for service checks and general engagement.

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

Their talent identification and onboarding. We've never encountered a problem in bringing additional people with new skillsets on demand. They're also keen to push their internal talent pipeline and are always looking at effective ways to bring junior staff onboard.

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

They're a terrific partner but as the relationship grows we'll expect to see more technical and thought leadership.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Assistcargo is part of the JLA Group, founded in 1990, with the vision of providing innovative Claims & Risks Management services for the insurance market, producers of goods and the automotive industry, whose companies are leaders in their respective fields of action. My position is General Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Soft de Risk management.

1) Having integrated more than 300 GPS companies and access to all the logistics visibility of those trips.

2) Have KPIs of our clients' logistics in a single platform.

3)Have a single control tool in our central monitoring center

SOLUTION

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

a) Great team (+500 people).

b) Specialization in the insurance and transportation market.

c) Very good technical and commercial references

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

Technologies used:

Backedn: .NET Core 6.0 and with CQRS pattern for the entire BackEnd

FrontEnd: .NET 6.0 MVC + Boostrap + VueJs • Maps OpenStret y Google Maps

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

15 peoples

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to launch the project early, which was a great achievement for us. In the first three months, the solution has reduced data entry errors by 70%. Data automation also frees up time for our employees, allowing them to focus on other tasks. Their team performed so well that we decided to continue working with them to maintain the solution

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

The project management was excellent, especially compared to other vendors we have worked with. They regularly met deadlines and we never had any unexpected data loss. We communicate through Skype, Jira, and GitHub. Common responses include communication tools (eg, email, Slack, Jira).

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

We had direct access to the entire team including the Management team, which facilitated the communication of our ideas. Things can get complicated if you are only talking to a project manager.

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

While the quality of the work was excellent, they could have been more diligent with the documentation. I told the project manager and his team is working on this now