ICterra

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm head of Atos Unify's software products' License Management to our customers and responsible for development, operation, maintenance and L1/ L2/L3 Support of our License Management eco system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ICterra?

We have a very long history with ICterra, and they are our trusted software development partner for many years. ICterra has key technical competences required for the development and maintenance of License Management System for all Unify products.

Today, ICterra is competence center providing software design, implementation and maintenance services for our all License Management System components including Servers and Client applications and locking technology.

Within years, ICterra gained both domain and product know-how and has always been catching up with the state-of-the art technology and expanded its range of responsibilities from pure maintenance activities to project management, new solution development, feature ownership, testing and L2&L3 support.

We have limited resources for niche competence areas and ICterra fills the gap by providing self-managed competent teams.

What were your goals for this project?

ICterra is the tech team behind our Software License Framework used by our 200+ products. The solutions are development with flexible approach by using various technologies and programming languages e.g. C++, Java, JavaScript, Spring, ModusLink Poetic, SOAP, Restful, React, AngularJS, MS-SQL. Our main expectations from ICterra team;

• Feature & User based licensing for monetization,
• License usage track with PAYG model & online control
• Multiple platform support
• Secure Communication using the latest protocols
• Vulnerability Management for usage of several platforms in a global Security Office group
• Software L2 & L3 Support in accordance with ITIL standards Although the teams are working from remote, there is very efficient cooperation through communications tools

SOLUTION

How did you select ICterra?

ICterra was formerly part of Siemens Enpterprise Communications in Turkey and after their Management Buy Out, the decision for us was obvious as they both have remote working experience and required know how.

During the first year of contract, ICterra proved itself also as a reliable SME and a trusted partner and we have extended our working relationship. Even after our company went through a supplier consolidation, ICterra remained to be one of our very few Software Engineering suppliers in this domain as unique competence center for our License Management System.

Additionally their performance led us the decision to extend their business with L2 Support responsibilities on top of existing DevOps and Maintenance Services.

Describe the project in detail.

ICterra works as DevOps team of our License Management System. All system Update/Upgrade operations, development, bug fixing, testing & L2/L3 support services are provided by ICterra. All the activities are tracked by relevant KPIs and continuously monitored and evaluated for improvements.

Additionally, they have a very strong on-boarding process and seamlessly enable new team members in short time with a technical coaching process and online & recorded training sessions.

What was the team composition?

ICterra provides two teams for our project. One team works as DevOps for everything and also responsible from L3 support. Second team provides L2 support for our public license server.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

ICterra is technology competence center for our License Management System, which is key asset to provide licenses for our products to our customers. In addition, ICterra provides not only maintenance of legacy system but also modernization of modules/systems by using state-of-art technologies.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

ICterra is familiar with our SCRUM oriented processes and tools maintaining complex solution environments including hardware and software and has the necessary IT infrastructure, knowhow, and willingness to install, enable and utilize them effectively.

They have established an efficient test and development environment which is crucial for our line of business. All our technical meetings and project reviews are done from remote using these tools and our own collaboration platform. Apart from them we have regular quarterly Business Review meetings with ICterra.

In case of escalation, all contacts are defined and easy to reach and communicate. In addition to the professional project management by the required processes and methodologies, we had no problems in communication, coordination, and regular updates with any team members during the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their dedication and commitment to Software Engineering Services. As a pure software services company nearshoring is their #1 priority.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Throughout our partnership in years, the team have been continuously evaluating the performance and identifying points of improvement if any. ICterra has always taken action in case there is an improvement possibility and track the results whether it be technical, organizational or managerial.

Moreover they are open to agreed experimentation including scrapping failures without regret, should they happen.