Situational Summary
Vision
In working with Accelerance, the aim is to form strong relationships with professional outsourced technology development partners to increase Wayne and Reed’s development capacity and capabilities. Their clients and potential clients are growing, and their need to service that audience requires expanding their capability. However, they must operate in a recessionary and inflationary environment where clients are cost-conscious and results-driven. Outcomes for Wayne and Reed are multiple development company partner options suitable to execute the Wayne and Reed set of operating procedures, utilize their desired tools and frameworks, and the ability to come into customized client works that Wayne and Reed acquires.
Some clients have their own tools and are not building from the ground up, and will need specific skillsets and software tool familiarity. A winning outcome for Wayne and Reed is a set of potential outsourced partners flexible enough to follow the Wayne and Reed way and engage a client’s tool set. These are new initiatives, and ongoing conversations that have not yet begun as a new project. This includes software developers, project managers, data engineers & analysts, cloud development (GCP) CI/CD and DevOps capacity, and other roles.
Offshore Experience
Brian’s experiences include working with outsourced firms as large as Tata, and he’s currently working with three outsourced firms in his professional space (2 in India and 1 in El Salvador). He’s worked with Vietnam, Ukraine, Korea, India, Pakistan, and Central America firms. He’s worked with weekly and monthly flat rates for a pre-set team, hourly contractors, and project-based pricing. The most challenging team to work with was based in Vietnam.
Brian enjoys working with the LatAm firm he currently has a relationship with; he had all positive things to say about his experience with them. When a client needs a fully loaded team and has an open budget, the partner is great to work with. Due to market conditions, their size, and growing demand, this partner can be slow to staff. When Brian needs capacity quickly, this can cause some concern, but their delivery and customer experience are excellent.
For any new firm he works with in LatAm, he is looking for speed, agility, and fair market pricing, while maintaining quality.
Current State IT Capability and Capacity
Currently, they are focused on capacity for mobile application development and consulting. Their projects usually involve consulting and discovery, leading to scope and staffing. As a full-stack developer and chief technology officer, Brian brings specific development knowledge that informs their growing capacity.
Technology Stack
They are going to be focused on the javascript family, namely:
- Reactjs,
- React Native,
- Vue,
- Angular,
- Nodejs.
- Their git client is GitLAB, not GitHUB unless asked by the client,
- They use Google Cloud Platform almost exclusively unless the client requests, and products of interest include salesforce and snowflake for data.
They may have several opportunities involving machine learning, artificial intelligence algorithm design, and blockchain-related smart contract development. However, these needs are not common. These are “Nice to have.”
Their Client Profile
60% have a need and don’t know how to solve it. An engagement will begin with Brian building a product roadmap and acting as the Project Manager, and the development team typically requires 2-3 devs. From there, the projects generally grow on an as-needed basis. Some resources like UX/UI, QA, and DevOps are required on a fractional basis.
40% of his client base is typically an already established business where the client may need to refactor a legacy system, and they do not have the in-house expertise to execute. In this case, Brian generally looks to build a fully-loaded development team with PMs, BAs, 4-5 Devs, etc.
Working with a New Partner - Relationship Vision and Timing
Wayne and Reed is engaged in project-based client work that involves a wide range of potential needs. They hope to have a team structure that includes a project manager, preferably one that can manage several of Wayne and Reed’s projects within their firm, a lean team of the required skillsets (developers, analysts, data related, whatever is necessary), a DevOps or quality assurance role.
Brian would like a small or medium-sized set of partners that are large enough to have various capabilities yet small enough to handle the size of their clients. He would prefer partners in a set of time zones related to the US business cycle, but that's not critical if the partner is strong.
The partner will own zero IP from any activity conducted with them via Wayne and Reed. At times, partners may help work on internal Wayne and Reed projects, and we have IP agreements that require the partner to own nothing.
They expect that an internal contact at Wayne and Reed will serve as a point of contact for project managers for each project. We expect a structure where, project managers and team members will use their set of tools and accounts to report on their project progress, and for Wayne and Reed to measure the effectiveness of the project and its management in a standardized and objective way.
Desired Partner Characteristics
Nearshore is preferred, with time zones reflecting Central Standard Time, or US Times zones generally. Functional capabilities are more key than industry focus, as their clients differ greatly.
IF certifications could include Google Cloud Platform-related capabilities, salesforce architect, and snowflake-related certifications.
They would prefer that the team members' English is strong and understandable by a typical US business client. They can participate in meetings as needed, especially to solve unforeseen challenges.
Partners that can give them predictable pricing, and are realistic about what resources it takes to deliver a project, as many underestimate and then adjust when challenges arise, compressing their margins.
Onboarding and Ramp-Up
At the initiation of a project with a client, they will have estimated what roles need to be filled, and a set of potential timelines and milestones they will need to accomplish with those resources. The aim is to have small teams which all will have a project manager who is going to be responsible for the outcome of the project, reporting to Brian and potentially my client, management of resources developing the project, and communication with Wayne and Reed over the life of the project. The team managed by the project manager will vary by project, but will generally include some development resources, some DevOps, and some quality roles.
Wayne and Reed will follow standardized processes and operational procedures, which will be the same across all nearshore/offshore development partners. They will require that the partner adheres to the processes they outline for tracking project progress, milestones, documentation, and deliverables to them, and, ultimately, their clients.
Budget and Funding
Since our clients have to justify the cost of doing business with us, they have to be cost-conscious and complete with regard to engaging client development needs. They do not have a target hourly rate identified, as resources vary by skill, location, and experience. However, they will not engage partners that compress their margins on a project.
They expect rates to be in line with acceptable market pricing dependent on resource experience, skillset and location: $50-90/hour
Decision-Making Process and Timing
Each potential nearshore/offshore development partner will be evaluated based on the following criterion:
- Technology Capabilities, and depth of capabilities to engage different needs from clients
- Design capabilities, would like to use the same firm for both as often as possible
- Length of time resources have been associated with the nearshore/offshore partner (many times they staff up quickly themselves with people they don’t know well. Brian wants to avoid that)
- English fluency and/or proficiency
- Ability to work and attend meetings on a US based time zone (not critical, but important)
- Ability to work with the technologies standard to Wayne and Reed project management, including JIRA, Asana, GitLab, and to adhere to our reporting and progress communication needs
- Depth of certifications, including any cloud certifications, software tools, and other useful tools interesting to our clients.
- Cost of resources as a group for a project
- Team stand-up time, how long does it take to initiate work on a project
- Quality of previous projects completed for other clients
- Professional and timely approach to work. They are an engineering company culture and want to work with professional and organized partners to keep their clients aligned with their progress.
Our Recommendations
Accelerance has considered your objectives and partner selection criteria in the context of all members of the Accelerance Global Partner Network. Given your declared needs and objectives, Accelerance is delighted to introduce the below Certified Partners as our top aligned choices to work as dedicated Partners.
These accomplished groups are excellent representatives of the 60+ Members of our Global Service Provider Network.
View the Partner Matrix
