taking over co-ownership of a major software factory, from the need to the solution

mission

challenges

success catalysts

context

The customer is a software publisher and service provider offering HR management, public administration, and document management software solutions.

Their clients’ industries span from the public sector to banks and insurance companies and are used by over 250.000 end users.

The client’s initial need was to choose the right software development partner whose strong and autonomous team would own the development of their main product lines. The ambitious goal was to build three teams that would take over ownership of the applicative layer of the client’s leading software products.

We were introduced in 2019 when Itecor became their main development partner and much more.

solution

Taking over ownership of three main product lines comes with its own set of challenges. Working with different teams requires good organisation, procedures, and processes in place in order to establish effective communication and collaboration – which is especially important when that team is introduced in a later phase of the project. Meeting our client’s expectations and successfully delivering projects would ensure customer satisfaction and continued collaboration.

Taking over the software factory on our side meant working together with the client in a co-construction mode.

Consensus on processes and procedures
Structural building of the teams and collaboration with the client to develop the teams (hiring, training, review, evolution)
Coordination of multiple teams
Project co-estimation and establishing delivery
Building healthy communication and successful teamwork between Itecor’s teams and the client’s
Revamping the developing process stemming from the limited resources of the server
Software factory evolution and growth

A trusted relationship always starts with a first success: the first project we took over had a predetermined long-term plan on the requirements:

integrating different applications, such as a salary mode
moving the application from a “fat client” to a web platform
providing a more modern view of the application
and other features that would enable the users to fully utilise the HR management software

The customer recognised our work ethic, strong organisation, and expertise, and our responsibilities and scope extended regarding the projects we work on and the features we are helping develop in each project. Based on this first strong success, a second development team was built to support our client’s ERP software for public administration. The scope includes improving known pain points, modernisation, optimisation for data size, and product evolution through cross-project collaboration.

By the way, in the document management software solution, we are helping the customer in optimising and modernisation, migrating to newer technologies and introducing a software integration of a new document signing feature, replacing a third party software previously used.

benefits & results

By using innovative technologies and incorporating agile methodologies, the Itecor teams help the client in developing and integrating different applications in conjunction with the existing software solutions: developing new features, cross-product platform integration, proposing improvements in regard to technical capabilities, quality, performance, and overall maintaining and stabilising each software suite.

Our development teams use a technology stack composed of Java EE, ActiveMQ, Solr, Angular 10 and Docker.

Apart from technical expertise, the key success factors of a successful software factory are great collaboration and trust between Itecor and the client.

“We have an incredibly positive experience in working with the client. We have been accepted as professionals that could bring value to the company. So that means that our opinion is listened to, considered, and we feel free to challenge any decision made by their side, with the goal of delivering the best result.”

Nikola Tanev –
Project Lead, Senior Software Developer at Itecor

By providing the customer with technical expertise and cross-teamcross-team knowledge sharing, today, we lead the module software design, team planning, development, validation, and support activities of the projects. Keeping the client’s mindset in mind, we help deliver clear, simple solutions to complex problems. And not just delivering but acting as a trusted advisor to our client’s core solutions on a long-term basis.