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

View the Partner Matrix

Partner Matrix

 

Partner Information and Other Relevant Materials

Accelerance gathers and compiles relevant due diligence information on our Partners to share with you. This includes presentations, Assessments, blogs, and Accelerance Video Interviews of Partner leaders discussing topics of outsourcing interest. To review information and other relevant material for your top aligned Accelerance Partners, click on the links below.

What Personalsoft has to say about your project

Ryan,

Thank you for sharing the Enlace Health Situational Summary document. I have reviewed the details and believe PersonalSoft would be a great partner for Enlace Health for the following reasons.

  • PersonalSoft has experience working with clients in the healthcare space and has had a lot of success partnering with clients to build Enterprise-grade software platforms.
  • PersonalSoft has earned CMMi Level 5 certification & ISO 270001 certification; however, we also recognize the importance of balancing the self-direction and benefits of an agile approach with the oversight and risk management of traditional enterprise approaches.
  • With over 23 years in the Latam market, PersonalSoft has an extensive network of candidates when leveraging internal staffing is not possible. PersonalSoft has a mature recruiting process that aids in quickly scaling up capacity in a short period of time.
  • PersonalSoft provide Service Managers at no additional cost. Services Managers focus on the quality of service delivery as well as team member health with an eye toward increasing retention. 
  • PersonalSoft understands the important distinction between a "walk through walls" mentality and an "order taking" mentality. We are able to screen for this quality.
  • As part of PersonalSoft's Governance Framework, there are monthly engagement governance calls with the client. These calls are intentional touch points to identify risks and look for opportunities for improvement. PersonalSoft Executive Leadership and the Service Manager actively participate on these calls.
  • PersonalSoft's US leadership is based on Atlanta.

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with Enlace Health to better understand their specific requirements.

Thanks,

Frank Torres

Country Manager, CEO at PersonalSoft

Learn More →

What Sofka Technologies has to say about your project

Hi Ryan:

We want to confirm our interest to participate in the selection process to provide the services described in Situational Summary of EnlaceHealth. 

Based on our understanding of the situation, we want to share a few highlights of why we feel we would be a best fit for your customer.     

Overview:

  1. Sofka Technologies has established itself over the last one decade to be the first choice for providing IT Services and solutions by top notch talent spread across US and LATAM geographies.
  2. We have our major delivery centers based in Colombia (Medellin & Bogota) and Uruguay that help to leverage time zone advantage and overlap work schedules with our clients for real time collaboration and communication with enhanced productivity and satisfaction.
  3. Our 550+ finest engineers, IT professionals, designers and consultants have earned a distinction in over a decade to be the best by following client- first approach.
  4. We have advantage of diverse and inclusive workforce coming from multiple countries across the globe
  5. We are conscious of developing talent by focusing on college graduates and grooming them over years to become world class top IT professionals with quality training through our own SofkaU corporate university following structured programs. We put special attention to developing not only technical skills but also our core values named the “Sofka attitude”, a distinctive mark you will perceive in all our people.
  6. Our vast recruitment experience and streamlined processes helps us each time to scale quickly on a need basis.
  7. Taking a step ahead to be in closer vicinity to our clients and giving them world class service experience, we are opening a Service office & HQ at Miami from Q2 – 2022.
  8.  We have a 3-level account governance process (Strategic, Tactical & Operational), where we make sure all clients and projects are handled through industry established standards and experience created by our governance team which we call "Sofka way".
  9.  We have a strong pool of experienced professionals with industry knowledge which we leverage to provide the best context IT services for our clients
  10. Our experienced leadership team of delivery managers and partners have vast industry knowledge and success stories with large multi-national companies from varied Industries across countries of North and South America region.
  11. We have been engaged in several opportunities under the onsite-nearshore model where we are fully confident in our collaborative governance model.  We are more than familiar with the ramp-up and management process of a team with the required skill sets, successfully providing focused teams with excellent technical & soft skills, client first approach and multi linguistic connect with focus on English speaking customers.

Regarding specific experiences in the field of Healthcare industry, we have been providing IT services to one of the leading regional healthcare institution with HQ in Colombia and operations across all LATAM, helping them in different custom-made solutions (internal solutions but also customer facing products); we have a pool of more than 120 engineers & IT consultants working in different projects and initiatives for them. We provide Agile Pods, Architecture Design, Software development, Quality Assurance & Engineering, RPA services, among others. 

In the healthcare space we are also working for a US-based company in this sector, providing development cells, where the team is composed of scrum master, tech lead, frontend and backend developers and Quality Assurance Engineering. All of them under the lead of a dedicated Sofka Delivery Manager.

 Technology

  1. We have deep experience in different tech stacks. We work with several languages like JavaScript, NodeJS, React, Python, Java, .NET and few more. Libraries like React and JQuery, databases like SQL Server and PostgreSQL, and different frameworks such as Next.js, Angular.js, and Bootstrap. We also work with cloud services such as AWS, Azure, Lambda functions (AWS), and Step functions (AWS). We use software tools like Terraform and Docker.
  2. We have extensive experience in reactive and elastic cloud architectures. 

 Engagement Model

  1. Our engagement model is more of partnering with clients to ensure a thorough understanding of our client’s goals, and mutual expectations are set accordingly. We offer a complete solution from ideation/UX to development, testing, and deployment.
  2. During our onboarding process, we suggest having Sofka key members at your office for important discussions to establish a relationship and better understand the processes before moving forward. We will also thoroughly engage both physically and virtually in the relationship to ensure clear understanding, better communication, and goal alignment.
  3.  Last but not the least, we highly encourage having our clients visit our offices to meet the team, determine best practices on how we will work together, and experience our beautiful country and diverse culture.

Culture

  1. Sofka is a people centric company where all decisions and strategies are made keeping our 'Sofkianos' at the center of the priorities.
  2. We have created a culture meant to align with US business culture. Our team has strong English language knowledge and is willing to go the extra mile for our clients. We’ve created a culture of transparency and collaboration where we’ll be the first to admit when we’ve made a mistake and based on ideas meritocracy instead of seniority.
  3. We enjoy a culture of feedback that allows us to celebrate victories, adapt quickly if needed, and try different things to grow faster and more robust.
  4. We believe in continuous learning and improvement, and to do so we provide the best environment to our Sofkianos by dedicating time during their work schedule to not only train but also get certified
  5. All our Sofkianos have a strong understanding and work on a daily basis guided by our purpose: We look after our surroundings multiplying successful experiences.   
  6.  We have a team of hardworking Sofkianos who enjoy their work and responsibilities with clients and organization

Certifications

  1. We work with the leading cloud providers worldwide, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, with trained professionals in the respective technologies
  2. We have Scrum Alliance certified practitioners, Scrum Masters, and Product Owners with 7+ years of expertise using Scrum.
  3. We are serious about our work and joyful about life, eager to learn because growth goes beyond a single project. 
  4. Sofka is the acronyms of "Software Kaizen", from the Japanese term that refers to “change for the better" or "continuous improvement”,o we were born with the clear mindset of continual improvement to become a better company comprising of better individuals.    

Delivery Readiness

  1. We follow the rotation strategy to create a mix of team with Sofkianos and market hires to ensure the Sofka Way and Experience for our newest clients as well
  2. Our governance and structure allow us to do quickly Ramp up in different technologies creating multi technology skills by doing cross skilling and up skilling as per clients requirements
  3. We manage a bench strength for our clients to ensure the readiness in delivery as well as quick replacement as per the need of projects and clients

References

  1. We are proud to indicate that more than 90% of our business comes from the existing clients through renewed services which is a testimony of high client satisfaction and our strong relationship fostered over a decade.
  2.  We have strong testimonials from our clients which are from different industries (https://clutch.co/profile/sofka-technologies#reviews)
  3. We work with all segments of customers where most of our clients are Enterprise Level Organization which are leaders in their lines of business 

We are interested in meeting with your Client to have an exploratory call, get to know each other, and better understand the type of profiles they are looking for in more detail. When can be earliest convenient time for us to meet?

Best regards,

Estaban Alonso

Business Development Director, Sofka 

Learn More →

What CI&T has to say about your project

Hi Ryan, 

Thanks for reaching out.

Enlace Health looks like an excellent opportunity based on the company´s background, vision, offshore experience, technological stack, and leadership profile. We are very motivated to learn more about them, understand their challenges, and how CI&T can help them expand the existing SaaS platform and create new digital products.

Being a Latin American company, with nearshore delivery centers in Brazil and Colombia to attend the North American market, CI&T's advantageous location, just east of EST allows for an overlap of fully 7 hours per business day.
 
Our dedicated International teams have served similar clients' (both in the healthcare and other industries) helping them create product strategies, design customer experiences, build web/mobile apps and platforms with enterprise-grade development to drive revenues and reduce costs.
 
We organize our teams in pods according to the client's needs and culture to maximize productivity and business results using Agile, Lean, DevOps practices and constant communication. My understanding is that both companies have a very similar culture, and this will make it easier to rapidly scale the operations as Enlace demands.
 
We have teams that are fluent in the English language and have extensive experience with various technologies, including all the ones listed in the software languages ( Python, Rust, NodeJS, Javascript, React), collaboration & development tools ( Zoom, Lucid Chart, Jira Cloud, GitHub, Docker, Visual Studio), and infrastructure & middleware (AWS Cloud and tools, API Gateway, SQS queues, etc.)

Finally, I want to emphasize that CI&T is looking for long-term relationships, just as Enlace does, based on mutual trust, direct communication that can bring results for mutual benefit. We do believe that partnering with Enlace Health can bring both companies to this scenario.  

Sincerely.
 
Aldir Brandão
Chief Business Development Officer, CI&T

Learn More →

What V2Solutions has to say about your project

Ryan, 

Thanks for sharing the opportunity Enlace Health has engaged Accelerance to work on and find a suitable long-term partner. We intend to be that trusted partner. Why? Because at just like Enlace Health, V2Solutions takes prides itself for being purpose driven. Purposes being – working with small and medium startups, making a positive change in the world, being a long-term partner with product development organizations. We are not just another Outsourcing Company for our clients. When engaging with our clients, our goal is to be trusted advisors - first. The outcomes of the business partnership, SOWs, revenue, etc. is - second.

The values on which Enlace Health has been founded, systematic changes, deliver value for money, being outcome focused, work hard, have engaged and respected employees as team members are very close to our heart at V2Solutions. Employee engagement is one of the core values we practice at V2Solutions with our own employees, who we fondly refer to as, Vibrants. Just as we stay in touch with our customers via C-SAT surveys, we stay in touch with our employees' and their families' well-being via F-SAT surveys!

V2Solutions was founded in 2003 and has grown from humble beginnings of less than 10 employees hired for a specific client, to over 900 plus employees engaged with 40+ clients. V2Solutions' footprint spans multiple US (East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast) and India locations (Navi Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Udaipur, to name a few). We have a broad range of services to offer in addition to Digital Engineering. These include Cognitive technologies (ML, AI, Data Sciences, Data Insights), Digital Platforms (Mainly SalesForce), Robotic Process Automation, Digital Experiences, and Digital Workforce.

Seeing the talent recruitment and retention challenges, we undertook a massive hiring and upskilling program in 2021. Through this program, we have created a Ready-to-Deploy pool of more than 100 professionals across Digital Engineering, Digital Platform, Cognitive Tech, Digital Experiences, and Digital Workforce practices.

Additionally, Vijay Shah, the CEO and founder of V2Solutions, has imbibed employee centricity as his personal and professional core value right from the start of our first hire. We are proud of the Vibrants that have been with the organization from its founding days, and many employees have been at V2Solutions for the majority, if not all, of their professional careers. V2Solutions has built successful and lasting relationships with clients that span multiple years - where our Vibrants feel, behave, and are seen as an extended arm of the client team based in the USA.

From the letter of introduction, here are a few areas I wanted to highlight:

  • We have worked with multiple Enterprise level clients for decade plus – often with same delivery manager. We bring the agility of startups and systematic process maturity of larger organizations with our teams.
  • Engagements where clients drive the deliverables and V2Solutions works with key stakeholders in traditional/modified sprints, pods, and MVP implementation - are all very familiar to us.
  • We currently have customer engagements that span the entire time zone spread of USA – EST to PST. We are capable of scaling quickly with the right combination of onshore, near shore, offshore model –all while keeping client’s value for money and organizational goals.
  • We are well equipped to undertake a fruitful journey with clients who have varied experience in the outsourcing partnership arena – novices to experts.
  • Our leadership prides itself in putting itself not only in the shoes of the clients, like Enlace Health, but also the customers of the clients.
  • We pride ourselves on recruiting and developing Vibrants that are inquisitive, think outside the box, and while they complete tasks on the one hand, they are mindful of the larger picture, collaborations, and communications on the other.
  • Vibrants and key stakeholders developing a trusting relationship is welcomed and very common on our teams.

We look forward to going to the next steps with Enlace Health, including meeting with the right stakeholders at Enlace Health. After we learn a bit more about the opportunity, I am very confident that we will successfully showcase our relevant capabilities in the Tech Stack (Python, Rust, NodeJS, Javascript, React), the Healthcare space, AWS capabilities, and ideas about leveraging Machine Learning + Data Sciences.

Sincerely.

Hemant V. Ajbani, MBA, PE
SVP Customer Success Management Group

Learn More →

Recommended Reading

Conclusion

After you review this proposal please respond with feedback and questions so that we can clarify your needs and preferences.

The next recommended step is to have a brief 1 hour video call with two or more recommended partners using a simple agenda below. You will use the calls to validate shared information while exploring other related topics like how they work with clients and how they would create and ramp up your team, what software development methods they use with clients, case studies, metrics, etc... You can choose to keep the call at the business level or you can make it more technical.

Partner Intro Video Call - Recommended Agenda

  • 15 min: Overview of your company background and project goals and objectives.  
  • 15 min: Partner overview and review of their ability to support your software development needs
  • 25 min: Q & A 
  • 5 min: Next Steps
Ryan Schauer
Partner Success Manager
Accelerance Inc.