Beetroot AB

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the DevOps manager of Skyresponse, a Swedish technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Beetroot AB?

We needed help with IT services for our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Beetroot AB provides IT staff augmentation services for us, mainly including backend development, QA testing, and UI/UX design resources. They source their internal staff for our projects, taking full responsibility for them.

Regarding technologies and tools, the team uses React, TypeScript, JavaScript, C#, and Python. In terms of UI/UX design, the teammates create mock-ups and suggest how the pages should look so the development team can take care of implementing their designs.

What was the team composition? 

We’ve worked with around two members of Beetroot AB’s team, including an account manager and an HR partner.

How did you come to work with Beetroot AB?

They were already working with us when I took my current position.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $1 million with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Beetroot AB’s team is always focused on learning new things and taking every development process in the right direction — that’s why they’ve kept improving throughout the partnership. They also change a resource if needed, but we haven’t done that in the last two years.

How did Beetroot AB perform from a project management standpoint?

Beetroot AB leads a smooth process. In terms of communication, we use email and Microsoft Teams for daily communication, but we also have monthly meetings with their upper management team to go over important matters.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Beetroot AB’s focus on their customer’s needs is impressive; they always understand our needs and quickly assign the right person to address them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on because they have the right resources to adapt to changes and challenges.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO of Inspera AS, a company that develops and provides a SaaS digital assessment platform. Ours is an end-to-end platform for setting up, offering, executing, marking, and evaluating digital assessments. We're based in Norway and have global offices in many countries, including Scotland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Beetroot AB?

We wanted to have access to a bigger talent pool of engineers. Relying on recruiting in the countries where we have offices was challenging because accessing the engineers and QA testers we needed often took a long time. 

The key reasons we hired Beetroot AB were to have access to a bigger talent pool for long and short-term projects and to reduce costs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Beetroot AB offers two different models for us: staff augmentation and consulting services. For the first model, they provide resources testers that they recruit, hire, and then provide with facilities, support, and HR services. For the second model, they provide us with consultants for specific projects. 

In the staff augmentation model, Beetroot AB has an HR representative we collaborate with. We give them the required qualifications, and they run part of the recruitment process, including initial and technical interviews. Then, we conduct a final interview and sign off on the candidate before they're hired. Beetroot AB has hired front- and backend developers for us across technologies like AWS, Java, and React, as well as QA testers focused on manual testing. 

Beetroot AB handles the candidates' initial onboarding; they give them the hardware and the equipment they need to get online. They also onboard candidates in terms of how their roles work locally. We onboard the candidates into our systems and how we work day-to-day. Beetroot AB also manages payroll; we get a monthly invoice, and they manage the employees' payroll and other HR aspects. 

As for consulting services, we've had projects for which we've needed temporary support. Beetroot AB has a number of consultants on staff and others they provide through third parties they partner with. We've had consultants join one of our existing in-house teams. Beetroot AB has also put together end-to-end teams with a project manager and developers to deliver on a set of specifications. 

We've done most of the specification work in-house for the consulting projects they've helped us with. We hand over the specifications to Beetroot AB through sessions where we get them up to speed. They then build on our specifications in an isolated development hub; Beetroot AB has handled projects end-to-end, including the infrastructure, development, and setting up the operations. 

What is the team composition?

We primarily collaborate with three teammates from Beetroot AB: an HR representative, Nadia (Account Manager), and someone who supports our consultancy projects. As for the dedicated resources they've provided, we have eight developers and two QA testers from Beetroot AB. 

How did you come to work with Beetroot AB?

We found them through our network; someone who had previously worked with us recommended Beetroot AB. At the time, we were looking for a new partner to provide us with engineering resources. We got that tip because our contact had worked with a company that collaborated with Beetroot AB. 

We got in touch with the team, and one of the main things that attracted us to Beetroot AB was their operating model. In this model, they would handle all the practical aspects, but once the resource was hired, they would be practically our employees. Therefore, it wouldn't be a pure consultancy model but a dedicated team model where resources could feel a connection to our company. We'd had that model with other companies in the past and thought it was an attractive proposition. 

Additionally, we liked that Beetroot AB invested in the teammates they employed, providing them with all the resources they needed and a good working environment. Moreover, all the references we found proved their other customers were satisfied. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested between $1 million–$2 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of our metrics for Beetroot AB is the success rate of their hires in terms of ensuring they're skilled and work well. The individuals they provide have different skill sets, and though they've made hires that don't work out, Beetroot AB's teammates' success rate is at the same level as our local recruitment. 

Another metric we look at is how quickly they can get ahold of new teammates and at which price level. Beetroot AB's speed of recruitment is quicker than what we achieve locally. They typically have someone online and ready to go a couple of months after we make a request, whereas it can take us six months to a year to hire someone in our Norway or Scotland offices. 

When it comes to pricing, they had good prices when we started working together, though they've gone up over the last few years. However, some of that increase is due to currency exchange rates. 

How did Beetroot AB perform from a project management standpoint?

The dedicated team members Beetroot AB provides operate within our team structure, so we handle the project management. When it comes to consultancy projects, their project management has been good; they've met the timeline targets, and their organization has worked well. 

They work with Slack for communication and Jira for project management, which are the tools we use internally. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm most impressed by Beetroot AB's ability to continue operating through the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. The team has been very resilient and dedicated to providing services despite the challenges they've faced. Moreover, I've always been impressed by Beetroot AB's ability to find highly skilled talent in a short amount of time. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only recent issue has been that their recruitment processes haven't been that well-aligned with our criteria. Therefore, some developers who have come through their recruitment pipeline haven't been as strong as we wanted. However, this has been a one-off issue. As far as general issues over time, there's nothing Beetroot AB needs to improve; we have a very good dialogue with them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear and specific about the operating model you want — it's important. You should also have clear specifications regarding the types of developers you need, the amount of skill you want them to have, and how to test the candidates technically. 

Essentially, you can look at an engagement with Beetroot AB similarly to recruiting teammates locally. Approach the project with the same diligence you would evaluating candidates you hire directly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Cpart Digital, a software house.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Beetroot AB?

We needed staff augmentation for our software house. We were having trouble finding good developers, and as a young company, we couldn’t compete with big companies in terms of salaries and budget.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Beetroot AB provided backend and frontend developers. We had interviews to decide who we wanted to work for us. Our company has a variety of digital products that include web and native applications. We mostly use .NET, .NET MVC, Angular, React, JavaScript, and CSS technologies for development. For mobile, we generally use native iOS or Android code, using Java or Xamarin.

We have a physical product, and then about seven or eight digital products. Those are in the form of mobile apps, dashboards, and portals. The design work is primarily done in-house, but their team has provided some assistance with that.

What is the team composition?

We started with one or two people, but that number has evolved over time. For the last year, we’ve had about ten developers. We had a UX/UI designer for a short time as well.

How did you come to work with Beetroot AB?

I got in touch with them and decided to have a meeting in Israel. It is better to start off slow when working with a new company, so we started with one developer. The whole HR process was excellent. They found the candidates that we interviewed.

How much have you invested in them?

We spend between $300,000–$400,000 per year. We pay them on a monthly basis using a personal employee agreement. The final cost for each developer depends on their level of experience.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Beetroot AB started in April 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I enjoy that we have an evolving relationship. As we’ve gotten to know each other, it’s become a more personal relationship. There are a few challenges due to the fact that we aren’t sitting in the same room. In terms of professionalism, it was the same as having in-house developers. The distance can be an issue when in-person meetings are necessary. We also had to learn about cultural differences we weren’t familiar with.

How did Beetroot AB perform from a project management standpoint?

We treat Beetroot AB as part of our team. Their communication was great. We travel to Ukraine pretty often, and their whole team is engaged with our work and company. They’re involved in company meetings.

When it was a smaller group, everything was managed from here. Now that the group has grown, we have two team leaders who function as development project managers. It isn’t the most structured process, but we found our way to make it work and are happy with the results we have at the moment. We use Skype or Google Meet. For communication, we use email and Jira in terms of the agile and development cycle.

What did you find most impressive about them?

While there were differences with them being in Ukraine and our company being based in India, I haven’t had such a positive relationship with another company. It has been working well so we never had to look for anything else.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Beetroot AB is pretty good at what they do. We aren’t familiar with the Ukrainian market and laws of employment. It would be nice to know certain things upfront when we’re looking at a budget for next year. Their team tries to make it more transparent. After we had a conversation with them, we created a spreadsheet and yearly plan for decision-making.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Without even thinking twice, I would recommend them. For every new project we had, I didn’t want to replace any developers. I wanted something stable and on a long-term basis. Treat them exactly like you treat your in-house employees and go visit their office. We’ve gone in the past, and this year we haven’t gone enough, and I feel different. It would be good to visit them once every quarter.