Situational Summary
Enlace Health, an Atlanta-based Health Tech SaaS company, is interested in identifying and engaging a leading nearshore service provider in a software development partnership.
For the purposes of finding the best aligned group, they have provided the following information:
The Business
Founded in 2010, Enlace Health’s mission has been to drive the systematic changes needed to put quality of care, cost containment, and real patient satisfaction at the heart of the US healthcare system.
Through Enlace’s robust SaaS platform, large payers in the Healthcare ecosystem across the US –BCBS (states), Humana, United, Aetna, etc-- are able to implement the systemic changes required to participate in the increasingly attractive value-based care world, where quality of care is the key driver to cost containment and real patient satisfaction. The new infrastructure bridges gaps caused by the technical complexities and silos that exist within today’s chaotic healthcare environment.
Enlace’s corporate headquarters is legally in Columbus, OH but the majority of their employees are based in Atlanta, GA. There are currently 30 employees in the company but that number should grow to 100 by the end of the year. Fifteen people make up the engineering department and that number should double in the next few months.
Their most recent funding round came in October of 2021: that was a $60mm D Round. Otherwise, they are a privately held company so do not disclose any financial information.
Vision
Enlace Health is interested in identifying potential off/near shore partners with whom they can build a long-term relationship. That partner will provide critical assistance both on the existing platform or new projects: functional development and/or adjacent tool development. The assembled team of engineers will be organized in Scrum teams and will extend their internal development capability.
They have many important initiatives underway currently: both extending the current products and/or developing new products. Bringing on a high-quality partner will better ensure their goals and objectives are met. This would be difficult to accomplish recruiting in their traditional domestic channels given limited capacity in the market.
They are viewing this as an on-going relationship with on-going scopes of work. There may be times that they will need to flex the team up/down as new initiatives are developed.
Offshore Experience
While Enlace Health has never outsourced software development before, and the team has no significant experience working in an offshore model, the leadership offers an extensive background.
This includes hiring, structuring and leading multiple offshore teams: 1997 (India), 2000-2001 (India), 2005-2017 (India, Ukraine, Russia, Costa Rica, Brazil). Those teams were composed of 8 to 600 engineers for a variety of projects (typically 80-20% / 90-10% offshore-onshore ratios). In particular, the Head of Engineering worked for an offshore service provider (Mindtree) for 3 years.
Current State IT Capability and Capacity
Enlace Health’s tech stack includes:
- Software: Python, Rust, NodeJS, Javascript, React
- Collaboration & Development Tools: Zoom, Lucid Chart, Jira Cloud, GitHub, Docker, Visual Studio, and more to come (code analysis, …)
- Infrastructure & Middleware: All AWS Cloud, incl. EC2, S3, serverless services (Lambda, DynamoDB, …), PostgreSQL, AWS RedShift, Route 53, API Gateway, SQS queues, etc.
- Development Environment: Macbook Pro. To be discussed is if Enlace will provide laptops, VPN and software licenses.
Up to this point, Enlace has used a “Bullpen” approach to the team: whoever is available gets work. They are moving away from this into pods. Each development pod will consist of 3-7 developers, SCRUM master, System Analyst, Quality Engineer(s), etc. Spanning the development pods will be a CTO, Enterprise Architect(s), Engineering & Delivery Director, and Project Manager(s).
The technology team works in a hybrid Agile environment. There currently is a small (but growing) team that is dedicated to the mission of the company, flexible as they are called on to do many varied tasks. This approach to work is changing as we grow our team and add specialties.
There are presently 15 in the tech team, distributed across several US cities: Atlanta, GA; Columbus, OH; St. Louis, MO; Denver, CO. This team will grow to 30 in the next 90 days. As previously mentioned, they do not partner with any onshore or offshore company at this time
The team culture is evolving, certainly as they add more people and new leadership. The culture has been “mid-western”: hard working, very nice. They do not want to lose that as they grow. If there is a change, it is to be more aggressive: fail fast, radical candor.
Working with a New Partner - Relationship Vision and Timing
Enlace Health envisages the engineers provided by the new Partner becoming vital, contributing members of the Enlace team. They will be engaged, treated, and respected as such.
Enlace will bring on healthy, intact teams, as described below. Some flexing may be needed from time to time. These teams will be working on critical projects to support their growth but little IP, (e.g., API to ingest data). They will provide code back to Enlace that will be integrated into the rest of the system.
It will be important to find partners who are used to working on Enterprise-grade development. Given the size of the team required, it would be best to work with medium to larger sized companies within the Accelerance network. They will rely on the process maturity and recruiting capability of these groups.
Olivier Poulard, Director Engineering & Delivery, will be working directly with the team.
Enlace prefers to work off of their MSA.
Desired Partner Characteristics
Do you have any preferences for the following items? If yes please explain why.
- Location: Nearshore is preferable at this time.
- Time Zone: The majority of their technology leadership team is in US Eastern and Mountain time zone. As much overlap that is possible would be preferable.
- Industry Experience: A track record of success in developing enterprise-level cloud-based solutions is most relevant. Healthcare (payer-side) experience would be helpful.
- Other SME: are there other areas of expertise that you’d like the partner to bring?
- Certifications: The technical lead should be AWS certified (Solution Architect Associate or Professional). Agile certifications are a plus. Other certifications could be a plus.
- English Fluency: Clear verbal communication over video (Zoom) will be critical.
- Additional Comments: It is vital that team members understand their vision, strategy, plans, requirements, specifications and reports must be clearly understood. Clear design specifications and reports must be provided. The produced code and scripts must be properly documented.
Onboarding and Ramp-Up
Enlace would like to begin with one (1) Delivery Manager and one (1) Scrum team (6 to 9 people). In “cruise mode”, they would like to add one (1) System analyst, one (1) software Architect, one (1) Delivery Manager, and 2 to 4 Scrum teams (6 to 9 people each)
Additional roles will include:
- Proxy Core Team: one (1) system analyst + 1 software architect + 1 delivery manager
- Scrum Team: 1/2 Scrum master, 1/2 System Analyst, one (1) Technical Lead, 3 to 6 Software Engineers, DevOps Engineer, 1-2 Quality Engineer(s).
Note: multiple roles may be fulfilled by 1 person
It’s worth emphasizing the importance of having a high quality Delivery Manager and Tech Lead. These individuals will be critical to the overall success of the engagement.
Budget and Funding
Budget has been approved. Accelerance has reviewed and confirmed with Enlace current Latin American rates.
Decision Making Process and Timing
Enlace would like to begin this relationship by late April/early May of 2022. They are ready to go as soon as they find the right group.
The review and selection process will be managed by Andy Williams (CTO), Olivier Poulard, and Scott Foster (CFO). They are developing their evaluation criteria at this time. Generally speaking, the selected partner will need to pass Business/Technology, Security, and Legal scrutiny.
Enlace is not considering any partner options outside of Accelerance. There are no impediments to this initiative moving forward.
Our Recommendations
Accelerance has considered your objectives and partner selection criteria in the context of all members in 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 a dedicated Partner.
These accomplished groups are excellent representatives of the 60+ Members of our Global Service Provider Network.
View the Partner Matrix
