Future Processing

Please describe your company and your position there.

CONNECTS has been designed to care about SMEs, Start-ups and Suppliers and the business networks they are organised in. Our vision is to create a global level playing field for all entrepreneurs and companies to do successful business. We’ve created a global matchmaking and community management service that connects businesses and businesspeople via their local chamber and business networks.

It opens up a world of opportunities to develop new business connections and collaborate within communities of common interest. Today the CONNECTS platform hosts almost 50 Chambers of Commerce from representing more than 60 different countries around the world, with more than 35.000 of their members making an average of 5.000 monthly queries. Position: Head of Partnerships

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

First, we needed to migrate the platform to a newer version of the Symphony framework and PHP, to ensure secure and sustainable development of the service as the previous framework was no longer to be supported. Second, we needed to extend the functionality of the platform to deliver new modules to our clients within the agreed timescale.

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

I have been collaborating with Future Processing over the past 3 years in different software development projects and knew the way they work and deliver. We needed to scale up in short amount of time with a partner that could support our growth. After reviewing several candidates, we decided that Future Processing was the best fit.

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

Future Processing developed the new features of the Communities module, which enables users to join online communities to connect, do business, and exchange information and ideas with other companies. The module was based on the code of our existing functionality enhanced with additional features. Apart from development work, Future Processing helped automate quality testing and part of the deployment process. Technologies used: PHP Symfony 5

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

There were 4 people in the core team, 2 developers, 1 DevOps and 1 QA. This team was supported by 2 project managers, one relationship manager, one partner manager and one presales solution architect.

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

Despite some initial challenges in the cooperation between Future Processing and CONNECTS’ development teams, we communicated very well on the management level. As a result, together, we managed to turn things around and deliver a fully functioning Communities module within the agreed timescale. Through our cooperation, we achieved our business goal of being able to offer our clients a new opportunity to develop relationships, cooperate and share expertise.

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

The project management communication was open, transparent and timely. Tools used: Teams, Zoom, our CONNECTS platform, GitLab, to which we added in-person meetings and visit to each of our offices.

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

We were impressed by their focus on people and building relationships. This is what Future Processing prides itself for.

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

In our project review, both parties recognized that we started the project too quickly, more time should have been spent on scoping out the project and socializing the internal and external teams. More in-depth feedback should have been sought about the quality of some of the junior staff put on the project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm an IT director at Stalexport Autostrady SA. We specialize in toll motorway operation and maintenance.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Processing?

We needed their expertise in custom software development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to automate our payment system, so we tasked Future Processing with building this new platform for us. Their team used Microsoft Azure to implement software solutions based on our preferences on design and functionality. The software was divided into two subsystems, one for our internal operations and the other system focusing on our client-related contacts and transactions. The latter system promoted our existing products and served as our selling platform as well.

Future Processing already accomplished the development of our platform, but we continue to rely on their support for system maintenance and management.

What is the team composition?

We've started with a team of 16 resources and had to downsize to eight members as the project evolved. The team is normally composed of a product owner, developers, business analysts, and graphic designers.

How did you come to work with Future Processing?

We needed a local agency with a reasonable price point, and Future Processing was the team that met all our requirements — apart from only being 40 kilometers away from our office, they also gave the best offer among our other options.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $500,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The development project ran from August 2019–June 2020, but our collaboration with Future Processing is ongoing.

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

Future Processing has helped us hit our main goal of moving from a traditional to an automated payment system — that's our main success metric for their work. Our previous system has only enticed about 50% of our clientele to purchase from our website, but that rate has skyrocketed to almost 95% through our new payment portal. Apart from giving us lucrative options, it also helps us cut down on expenditure, which is especially beneficial now that we're going through a global pandemic.

How did Future Processing perform from a project management standpoint?

Future Processing is a communicative and cooperative team — they adhere to our project terms and work promptly despite the challenges that the pandemic has caused. Overall, it's safe to say that our collaboration with Future Processing has been one of the best projects I've ever handled in our company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Future Processing strives to deliver quality results based on their in-depth understanding of our needs — we have great trust in their team's work ethic.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's nothing constructive to say. Our ongoing collaboration is enough proof that we're impressed with the quality of their services.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Future Processing is a responsible team that's worth cooperating with — don't hesitate to hire them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering for an insurance company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Processing?

Our business segment is growing globally and we need technology to support the growth. We are developing a configurable platform to deploy in multiple countries. To scale up the program, we partnered with Future Processing to work with our teams.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Processing provides a whole agile team to be part of our program. Initially, we provided the information so they’d help us execute. They’ve used a mix of AWS cloud technologies, JavaScript, and Spring Boot, and everything is furnished by Serverless Orlando Services. They’ve also contributed to the design.

The platform is a full-suite insurance lifecycle and value stream. It’s an in-house iterative software application.

Future Processing formed an autonomous agile product team as part of this particular program.

What is the team composition?

We have over 20 people on our team, including a scrum master, product owner (PO), architects, product designers, and engineers.

How did you come to work with Future Processing?

Future Processing was introduced to our company. This program, started in 2019, was the first engagement with FP.  Since then, as a result of the success of this program, the partnership with FP has grown multi-fold.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $1–$5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement with the program started in 2019 and is ongoing.

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

Overall, it’s easy to work with Future Processing. They have industry-standard agile team skills and come up to speed quickly in every role they play.  The team not only gels into the program, they bring expertise and insights and are an integral part of the program.  

The team grew from 5 people to 20+ in the past 18 months, which speaks well about how satisfied we are with our partnership.

How did Future Processing perform from a project management standpoint?

Future Processing team comes with industry-standard agile team skills. They were able to form the backlog quickly and were mindful to grow the team's velocity over time. They’ve reduced the onboarding time for new team members. Now, someone can show up and be able to develop and check-in code within two weeks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their professionalism, flexibility, and company culture are most impressive.

I am most impressed by the professionalism and the quality of the team. They took the time to absorb and understand our business and technology landscape, which made them contribute quickly as a partner. People in every role bring their A-game. 

We started with five individuals, and they were able to jumpstart the team and get in a productive state within 2–4 weeks. FP listens to our needs and was able to find the right people to support us.

Throughout the pandemic, we know FP is very mindful of employees' health and wellbeing. Their company campus setup (e.g. onsite child care) indicates that they are a people company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At this point, the challenge is for all of us to maintain and add to the level of capacity we have. Our demand is high because of our partnership’s success.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear on what the engagement is about. If you don’t know, they can help you explore it. Future Processing has a vast service portfolio, so they’ll be able to meet your needs.

For companies in the US, be mindful of time zone differences.

Please describe your company and your position there.

At Purple, we aim for business value for our clients by creating great concepts through new and innovative technologies. Which often results in a combination of hardware and software services. My rol is the Head of Project and Account at Purple.

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

We hired Future processing to develop the Automodus app, an app that helps you stop using your phone while you're driving. The goal was to develop and further develop this app for one of the biggest insurance companies in The Netherlands.

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

We already have been in contact with FP for years. They have a proven track record for mobile app development. And a good price vs. quality ratio.

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

We briefed FP via mockups of the desired application. They build the app in reactive native on iOS and Android. We went through the whole process with FP, from storyboard to development, to testing and release. Currently we are still working together on additional features

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

Project manager React native developer x 2 2D design Q/A'er

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

After 3 years we now have over 300.000 downloads and 4+ star rating in both appstores

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

Their PM style is great. They use the same tools as us (Slack, Jira) and are always willing to help when needed.

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

They're very well organized and always willing to scale up when needed. If we have issues or challenges, they are the ones we go to.

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

Sometimes the impact estimations where a bit on the high side

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are the IT manager and business solutions manager at Steamship Insurance Management Services Ltd. It’s a mutual organization where we insure ships all over the world. We’re a P&I (Protection & Indemnity) club and there’re very few companies worldwide that do the same thing as us.

Our members don’t pay a fixed premium, but if the club, as a whole, has a bad year, then everyone contributes more to the premium. If we have a very good year, we can pay back their money. For example, when claims get to a certain level, it gets shared out amongst a wider group of insurers. 

If something bad happens to the ship of one of the other P&I clubs, and involves a large amount of money, we will all make contributions. If it entails a lot of money, we utilize a Get No Access Loss agreement, which is the largest reinsurance contract in the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Processing?

We were looking to re-engineer some of our applications from PowerBuilder into .NET. We have our own IT department, with a number of developers working on various issues, but part of our strategy was to outsource some of the development to Future Processing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Processing collaborates with our in-house team on a number of projects involving the Microsoft tech stack, .NET, and C#. They’ve also helped us with our Oracle database and SQL server. We had looked at a number of suppliers to build our extranet using Sharepoint, but we decided to go with Future Processing for that one as well.

We’re now focused on developing our core applications —  underwriting, claims, reference, and reinsurance. Our in-house business systems are built on .NET and they’re helping us transition into React. They’ve previously done other migrations and upgrades for us as already. We went from PowerBuilder to .NET and C# a few years ago.

Although we have a core team that we work with on a regular basis, Future Processing brings in their own expertise as well. This way, we’re able to have a conversation on particular jobs that we’re working on. 

Our system uses Azure and is web-based, so people can access it through their phones and tablets. We’ve released it already and users can securely sign in. Another part of that application is going live soon since we’re doing a new submissions and quotation system. We’re gradually migrating all the current core apps into this solution, but it's progressing well with Future Processing’s help.

Their team has also helped build a company mobile application, which we didn’t have any in-house expertise for. They’re involved in the support, development, and design of the iOS and Android apps. We’ve had the app since 2013 but, unfortunately, are decommissioning it. It has nothing to do with Future Processing; it is a strategic business decision.

We’re also engaging Future Processing for penetration testing. We’re doing a lot more mockups and prototyping now.

What is the team composition?

When we first engaged with them, we dealt directly with the CEO. Now we deal with an account manager and a project manager. We’re currently working with seven people, but we’re likely to get back up to 13 again. In previous years, we’ve had up to 22 people on the team. 

There’s good retention and consistency of resources. Contractually, they have to give us notice if they’re going to swap someone out, which doesn't happen all the time. At one point, we had to scale down to three members because of COVID-19. We generally have 4–5 people, on average. 

How did you come to work with Future Processing?

We went through a beauty parade of a number of outsourced suppliers, around 4-5 companies. Our IT director had come across Future Processing through a website. They came out on top for the criteria we were looking for. The two things that also stood out were their good level of English and their country’s time zone, both of which were a good match with the UK.

During their pitch, we got to meet some of the developers on their team whom we would be working with. They were able to understand our requirements and really play it back to us from a high level and a technical point of view in the demonstrations that they gave. They were a fairly new company as well and I believe we were one of their first customers. 

We felt comfortable with them from the start, but what really attracted us is their knowledge and understanding of the key technologies that we were looking at moving towards. We’ve been with them ever since. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2008. The partnership is still ongoing.

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

The success is in the delivery of the solutions. We like that we can ramp up and ramp down the team per project roadmap. Our continuing to work with them all these years is a testament to their great services.

We have an in-house team and we very much collaborate on the development. Future Processing has built a good rapport with them. It’s no longer just a matter of giving the piece of work over; they’re very much part of our own IT department. 

How did Future Processing perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything has very much been a collaborative process. We always have visibility on what’s going on. Whenever they finish a sprint, they show it so we agree on what the priorities are going to be for the next one. Over the years, we’ve refined the process quite well. 

They’re very good at meeting deadlines. We have a velocity chart, a simple spreadsheet, showing how much work there is being planned across each project. We look at everything from a high level view and try to strike a balance, which is very important since we have multiple projects going on at one time.

We use Jira notes and email, or have Microsoft Teams calls. We also have biweekly showcases that project leaders, key technical resources, and architects from our side attend. We go over what they’ve done, give feedback, and plan what we’re going to get out of the next iteration. Future Processing sometimes has separate, ad hoc meetings with the project leaders and technical guys as well. 

We used to go and visit them in person. That face-to-face contact is very good. Sometimes we’d have the project manager or someone else travel to them once or twice a year. That helps the relationship because we get to meet the team. It’s also a lot easier doing a presentation and training about the business in person. We’re missing that now due to COVID-19.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their breadth of knowledge on the technologies out there is impressive. They’re very engaging, create solutions, and add value to our company. They’re honest. Their technical expertise is brilliant but so is their communication and availability to work in the UK hours.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind. We defined the requirements for them and they know what we expect. They’re very technology-focused and sometimes need to see the bigger picture of how organizations work. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a collaborative approach. Make sure you engage with them and have your technical team speak with their team. Have regular showcase meetings as well because it's so important to have a collaborative approach.

Future Processing is flexible and has good communication and technical skills. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to friends and other insurance companies. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTIO of a global B2B information group that focuses exclusively on private equity, real estate, and debt, as well as infrastructure and agri investing. As these asset classes continue to grow in scale and significance, we provide unparalleled business knowledge, intelligence, and networking events to investors, fund managers, financial practitioners, and other service industries.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Processing?

We were deciding whether to build our in-house engineering team or to take on a nearshore engineering development partner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Processing is our in-house engineering team, and they work on multiple projects for us. Instead of us actually recruiting our own team and then having the overhead of managing, retaining, and developing that team internally, we brought in a service that provided that to us.

Initially, we gave them the background and history of the company. Their scope of work included the objectives, goals, and stakeholders involved. Furthermore, we presented proposals for the products that we were looking to develop or needed support. We also provided them with the system capabilities that we currently have, which we wanted to continue developing.

From there, they presented back to us their understanding of what we needed, their experience in that, both in similar clients and work that they’d previously done, and the types of skill sets and team setup that they’ve involved in those similar projects.

Right now, the projects they’re working on are our engineering projects. In particular, they work in collaboration with our technology and product development teams developing our website product and all of the applications that make up our web platform.

We mainly use WordPress CMS, Node.js, and JavaScript, which are the key technologies in our stack.

What is the team composition?

We initially started with about 14 roles. The team included a development manager, architect, PHP and WordPress developers, full-stack, Node.js, AWS, JavaScript open-source, QA, and DevOps engineers, as well as some UX designers.

Not only do we get a dedicated team from them, but we also have an on-demand resource pool as well. We can scale up their team on a relatively short notice whenever we need to fulfill some of the projects that we strategically decide on over the year. Then, we scale back down off the back of that.

At the moment, we have about 30 developers of all types of skill sets. About 15 of them are a core team, and another 15 have been provided to us on-demand to deliver very specific projects with shorter-term contracts.

How did you come to work with Future Processing?

We did an RFP process and had three companies shortlisted. We then traveled to various places in Western Europe and did site visits to them, where they presented themselves to us.

They responded to that RFP, and we weighed the decision based on people’s experience, skill sets, and what they delivered. We also gave them a task, and they presented back their proof of concept (POC) to show their ability to deliver what they were saying on paper. Off the back of all of that, we concluded that Future Processing was the right partner for us.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve already spent about £500,000 (approximately $706,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We completed the POC and made the decision to onboard them as our engineering partner in February 2020. We have an ongoing partnership.

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

A couple of metrics that we judge by are the release cycles and the volume they’re now releasing for us at the end of every sprint, which are two weeks long, so there are two releases a month.

We also look at and track the quality of what they produce, which is based on how much rework is done, how many bugs are in the code, and that type of issues. Lastly, we judge individuals based on the quality and volume of their work. It’s all about cadence tracking and having the team work cohesively to produce faster results.

How did Future Processing perform from a project management standpoint?

I couldn’t really comment on their project management because we don’t use it. We have our own internal project management team that works with Future Processing’s engineering team. They don’t give us project management resources per se, but they do have a team lead within the engineering team, which sits around that project management area.

Their team lead is responsible for helping the project manager ensure that team members are adequately aligned with their skills to do the job at any time we need. They help us coordinate the right skill sets, teams, and activities in order to get the job done. That area is very strong, as far as I am concerned.

We have regular account management sessions, as well as regular team meeting sessions. In those, we provide feedback both from us and their team. Out of that, we establish the sets of goals in which we’re all going to work so we can continually improve our processes.

For project management tools, we use the Atlassian toolset, so basically Jira and Confluence. We use Zoom and Slack for day-to-day conversations. Currently, we’re restricted by COVID-19, but the intention on both sides would’ve been to spend time together in each other’s offices. After the pandemic, we’re expecting to get back some part of the face-to-face communication on a regular, if not frequent basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For us, it was the quality of the resources that they could show us and the way they manage that quality and develop their resources. Specifically, across all of their projects, they gather stats data on the information that’s coming out. They keep that anonymous for obvious reasons, but it allows us to gauge how effective someone is across each individual role. For example, we can measure how effective an engineering resource might be with a particular skill set based on how many points they make or announce in their particular sprints, as well as the quality of that work.

Also, they have data that judges that, so they can pre-empt a bit when they see problems in quality. It’s a useful measurement for us because we can benchmark our team’s performance against the rest of their teams across all of their clients, and we get a gauge as to where we stand.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From an on-demand perspective, they probably could have more resources in the skill sets that we need. We know it’s a difficult thing to achieve, but that's still an area that we hope they keep improving so we’re able to scale at the pace that we want.

However, they’ve certainly worked very hard to fill gaps where we’ve needed on-demand resources, and it probably has taken them a while to recruit or mobilize those resources for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re bringing on a business like Future Processing, who’s already working with similar types of clients and problems, even potentially similar domains, I would look at those clients and the projects they’ve worked on. I would also make sure that all of them are referenced.

It’s not that we didn’t do that, but that’s the advice I would certainly give to somebody else since you don’t always get that. However, if you do so, it goes a long way when you’re onboarding the team because they tend to come with some experience and knowledge that gives them a little bit of a head start.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am co-founder of Elderlearn where we match immigrants who are learning Danish with elderly people at risk of loneliness. Elderlearn has designed their own IT-system for managing the matching of these two groups.

For what projects/services did your company hire Future Processing?

We were at first looking to outsource part of our IT development, but realised that our code structure needed to be improved before we could outsource, in order for us to improve the accessibility of the code for external developers.

What were your goals for this project?

To improve the code structure and thus make it easier and cheaper to outsource development.

How did you select Future Processing?

We had several companies give offers for developing a project that we wanted outsourced. We had a lot of confidence in Future Processing from the first impression and they were the only ones to suggest an IT audit rather than an outsourcing project.

Describe the project in detail.

Our developers had ongoing meetings with a architect from future processing who at first gave recommendations for how to improve the code and afterwards followed up in terms of seeing if his suggestions were implemented correctly.

What was the team composition?

Two part time developers at Elderlearn and one architect at Future Processing.

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

Our developers were very happy with the process and the price estimation for outsourcing the project we wanted to outsource in the first place was had a significantly smaller range (was more precise) due to more accesable code.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very easy to communicate with future processing and they were flexible and easy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The good customer experience was the most impressive thing about Future Processing.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I do not see any areas for improvement.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The PACT COMMUNICATION GROUP is one of the leading communication agencies in Germany for sales performance and competence and acts as a quality leader in SALES MANAGEMENT, BUSINESS ANALYTICS & TRAINING SOLUTIONS with the highest analytical, systemic and innovative competence. The four divisions PACT SALES, PACT MARKETING, PACT TRAINING and PACT INSIGHTS operate in a fully integrated and collaborative service portfolio PACT combines strategic advice with specialist implementation expertise to develop solutions in communication and sales. The company focuses on generating and activating leads and maximizing cross-channel conversion - from the first contact to successful completion at the PoS.

For what projects/services did your company hire Future Processing?

Our collaboration with Future Processing goes back until 2016. In 2019 we hired Future Processing for a project to upgrade, streamline, and re-implement our existing Business Intelligence capabilities. Even though successfully implemented, they were challenging in terms of maintenance and development due to their variety (different versions adjusted to the specific needs of each client).

What were your goals for this project?

The aim of the partnership was to create a Data Warehouse implementation with possibility to apply flexible customization tailored to our client’s particular needs.

How did you select Future Processing?

We did a research to find companies who provide IT development capacities and services. After a first assessment we narrowed down the number of companies to 3 possible candidates. At the end Future Processing ended up as winner to conduct this project because we had good experiences in the past, their development skills and experiences and their specialization in Business Intelligence development.

Describe the project in detail.

Our initial solution contained complex data that had to be extracted from Microsoft SQL Server, Excel and SalesForce, transformed accordingly to our client’s needs and, finally, shared to other applications like QlikSense reporting for data insights. The main responsibility of Future Processing was to create the whole ETL (extract, transfer, load) procedure. In the course of the project, Future Processing provided services in business analysis, data flow planning, designing data warehouse architecture, data migration and system integration.

What was the team composition?

Future Processing provided a flexible team that was scaled up and down accordingly to our current business requirements. Over the course of the project their team consisted of Business Intelligence architects, developers and a quality assurance engineer as, from the very beginning, the team was constructed in the way that enabled delivery of the highest quality final product.

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

FP has provided us with an optimal Data Warehouse for our BI system. Even logical changes within the DWH are implemented quickly. A reprioritisation of tasks is possible at any time, even in running sprints. With the help of Future Processing we have been able to improve our sales performance. '

The new automated data world improved the visibility on our sales activities and allowed us a better management of our sales teams. Reports run automatically, so we can support our customers more effectively and faster. We have become more responsive to new customer requirements.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project was organized and executed using Scrum. In this context, we provided the Product Owner to conduct communications with our stakeholders and the development team of FP. The project organization was very effective because communication has been easy and friendly all the time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Future Processing always managed to provide exactly the right people at the right time who helped us in the different stages of the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We can’t think of any improvements right now.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a consultant for an employee benefits software.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Processing?

The existing product we had was based on old legacy technology and was no longer meeting the needs of the market. We needed Future Processing to do a complete redesign and redevelopment.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Processing developed our new website based on the Microsoft Technology stack which was delivered within the Microsoft Cloud Platform. They worked alongside our in-house architecture, development, and product teams. 

The team was involved in low-level design work as well as development, testing, and QA work. They were also involved in specific enhancements to the product.

What is the team composition?

There were over 30 resources. 

How did you come to work with Future Processing?

They had been working for a number of years with us before we changed our name to Zest. We considered looking for other partners, but we felt they had the knowledge of the business and technical capabilities to score what we wanted to do. Overall, they were highly regarded. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $3.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from March 2015–February 2020.

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

When new requirements arise, we will work with them again because we were very happy with their quality of work, technical capabilities, and overall support. It was a good partnership. The product itself has been highly successful in terms of market penetration. 

Customers have migrated from the old product and new customers who have come on since have all been very happy with the product. It’s been the market leader within the employee benefits technology market. We’ve had extremely positive outcomes for the business. For example, we won an award last year for being the best technology provider in the sector. 

How did Future Processing perform from a project management standpoint?

They provided development support but not project management specifically. The team provided agile scrum teams alongside our internal agile scrum teams. They were responsive to our needs, and we communicated via collaboration tools and conference video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical competence and quality of output were impressive. Future Processing worked very hard on being a partner, and they were conscious of the role they played in the business. They made sure that they were working with us towards our objectives.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As a company, they had processes they needed to follow. There were some cases where we felt that their processes weren’t wholly responsive enough for what we do. That has nothing to do with the people, just the way they operate.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you’re asking of them. Once they understand what you’re looking for, they’re a very constructive partner.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Algorithm People (TAP) offer a revolutionary solution called My Transport Planner. It is a pay as you go, web-based transport planning tool designed for commercial vehicle operators of all sizes. TAP

For what projects/services did your company hire Future Processing?

We hired Future Processing to expedite the development of My Transport Planner. The opportunity to move in the market place swiftly was important to us and hiring in the expertise made sense to our business.

What were your goals for this project?

The key areas for My Transport Planner was to ensure the user gained efficiencies which were measured in five key areas: A saving in planning time A reduction in total mileage An increase in productivity A reduction in costs A reduction in emissions

How did you select this vendor?

Future Processing were highly recommended. We found them to be competitively priced with a wide breadth of experience in development and project management.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed the front and back end system. This was based on specification drawn up by our product development team who worked alongside FP . The work was broken down into Phases and from there broken down into Sprints.

What was the team composition?

The team was lead by a project manager and we had a number of developers working on the project. The consistency of the project manager was key as they led throughout the development and this was vitally important to overall objective and making sure we hit the time lines that we were working to.

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

Our solution is due to be launched to the general public in May. First feedback from beta testers has been very positive and we are very much looking forward to the response from the marketplace. We are already looking ahead to Phase 2 development

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was very effective. As previously mentioned it was consistent and we always had a point of contact. "We were impressed that if there was an issue it would be dealt with swiftly and professionally.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Flexibility and diligence. With experience in software development and a strong drive to get the development completed we have been a demanding client. However, this has been no issue to the team at FP and they have been happy to adjust the plan balanced with being realistic in what can be achieved. Nothing has been too much trouble and it has been executed well and professionally.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little to be improved on as a whole the project has gone very well. If anything time frames could be more specific, however, we appreciate this is not always an exact science in software development.