Case Study:
Successful partnership with ISV in Software Product Development Lifecycle
Successful partnership with ISV in Product Development Lifecycle This case study explores the evolution of a business relationship between a US based Mid size ISV in enterprise social software domain and Harbinger Systems.
History The company (let’s call it ‘Anonymous Inc.’ for confidentiality reasons) was started in 2006 in East Coast. Anonymous is a leading provider of enterprise social software solutions and services serving the learning, marketing and customer experience markets. Their flagship product is an enterprise social business software suite that helps organizations to create, design, manage social and knowledge sharing experiences that meet and exceed their unique business needs, all from one platform.
Business Challenges As a Mid-Sized ISV, the challenges faced by Anonymous Inc. were – Adaptability – The software industry is moving forwards in leaps and bounds, as a mid size ISV the need to reinvent themselves according to the constant upgradation in technologies was of utmost importance Time to Market – It was critical to utilize the first mover advantage especially in the enterprise software solutions space Operational efficiency - The need to judiciously utilize the available resources while still ensuring the high quality of its products, services and support.
Outsourcing - An Introspection While outsourcing was expected to address many of the challenges, Anonymous Inc. was extremely cautious before taking a decision. They did a detailed analysis of the factors involved in their outsourcing decision. Parameter in decision making
Their Analysis
Leadership’s experience with Leadership team was highly intellectual and demonstrated outsourcing engineering leadership however they did not have past experience of working with an offshore partner. Identifying the right partner
a. Finding the right-sized partner - someone who was not too big to call the shots in the relationship or one who was so small that they could not deliver on their commitments b. Partner’s previous experience – The partner needed to have prior experience working with a product engineering ISV and had to understand and appreciate the challenges of a VC-funded technology company.
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Parameter in decision making
Their Analysis
Flexibility
The partner needed to be flexible in the relationship. Flexibility in terms of changing requirements, fluid designs and payment related timeline adjustments.
Innovation
The partner needed to be technically savvy and innovative enough to challenge the technical decisions with a strong analysis and technical reasoning. A company that has innovation mind-set and product lifecycle management experience.
Business risks The decision was critical because of the business risks which included a. Compromise on the quality of their product b. Incorrect usage of precious funds c. Time - Put them back by a couple of months if they had to in source the entire piece from the partner d. Lose the competitive advantage that their product had as an early entrant in the market e. Data Security The management at Anonymous Inc. concluded that they needed a trusted Technology Partner who understood their organizational DNA and not merely a Service Provider who would agree to anything and everything that they said.
The Start of a Relationship Harbinger’s relationship started in 2006, when Anonymous was at a transitional stage from a mid size startup to a growth stage company. Anonymous first engagement with Harbinger Systems was integrating Harbinger's Offline Content Player with its LMS. Anonymous had plans to integrate a 3rd party Offline Content Player with their Learning Management System (LMS). Harbinger's Offline Player was the perfect contender considering the product's capabilities and Harbinger's proven expertise in the e-Learning domain and experience in partnering with leading LMS companies. When Anonymous started off the relationship with Harbinger Systems, like many other mid-size ISVs, they had initial reservations about Harbinger’s ability to understand their needs and deliver effective solutions. The reservations soon transformed into a confidence in Harbinger’s abilities. Anonymous realized that Harbinger was a partner that most ISVs could only aspire for. Anonymous acknowledged that they found this partnership beneficial for a number of reasons – a. Harbinger’s strong technical abilities and the desire to continuously push the technology boundaries b. Harbinger was right-sized – small enough to be nimble to adjust to the changing business requirements yet large enough to carry out innovations c. Experience with startups and mid-size ISVs – Harbinger, in its 16 year history until then had worked with multiple startups and mid-size ISVs in US and was perfectly tuned in to the ISV DNA d. As a product company, it clearly understood the first mover advantage that an innovative product gave to its customers and investors 3
The Journey What started off as a single project association eventually scaled up to multiple projects relationship. Anonymous was happy that Harbinger’s value addition to their business increased multi-fold as this relationship progressed. The timeline below elaborates how the relationship grew over a 6+ year’s period.
Presented here are the key highlights of our engagements with Anonymous: The work comprised of core feature development and customizations, product & patch upgrades, testing and professional support. Key project highlights include: -
Harbinger’s expertise in graphics and user interface design helped in designing and implementing an intuitive and impressive UI for the Social Applications.
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Extensive experience in ExtJS and JSON technology helped in building reusable social application components in a short turnaround time.
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Harbinger teams leveraged previous experience in building enterprise web applications using Java/J2EE technologies and Spring framework to implement new concepts like Domains, Experiences and Presentations.
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Development of new product features for various versions of their flagship product
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Upgrading client’s application instances and databases for both Enterprise (Hosted) and ODL (cloudbased) customers
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Customizing the hosted LMS & Social Media applications to provide specific custom features required by the customers
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Developing and customizing reports using Reporting tools - Actuate and MicroStrategy
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Creating and executing test plans and test cases for core features, customizations and product upgrades.
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Providing solutions and technical assistance to issues reported by the customers. Solutions include bug fixes, workarounds, and help guidelines.
The technology stack comprised of: Java/J2EE, Spring framework 3.0, JQuery, PL/SQL, XML, XSL, HTML, CSS, ExtJS, JSON, WinSCP, Cygwin, SVN, CVS, Actuate, Microstrategy reporting tools, Manual and Automation testing. Harbinger Differentiators for this engagement comprised of: Recognized thought leadership and expertise in the e-Learning domain Cutting edge and innovative eLearning products such as Offline Player, Raptivity, Elicitus Successfully proven long-term experience in partnering with leading Learning Management System (LMS) companies Contribution to standards bodies such as AICC for the CMI Specification Harbinger Systems team partnered with Anonymous and executed all projects with 100% offshore teams. An example– During a meeting, Anonymous shared that their latest product version had lost some functionality and consistency when it was migrated from the previous version. The security and access/permission structure was becoming confusing to Clients. Critical competitive capabilities were also absent in the product. To overcome the limitations of the product, new concepts of Domain, Experience and Presentation were implemented. A strong yet loosely coupled application was built using Spring 3.0 framework. The integration issues between different frameworks were resolved. Benefits offered by JQuery in terms of performance and flexibility led to client’s approval.
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Harbinger has always strived to go beyond the defined scope of the project and deliver world-class solutions using their innovative approach to technology. Here is what the leadership team at Anonymous had to say about this relationship – Our partnership with Harbinger Group has provided Anonymous with access to many skilled resources to augment our in-house development efforts across our social media, customer support and learning products. We have leveraged the company to assist with software development, research efforts and quality assurance. We have maintained a successful partnership with the Harbinger Group for many years and have been extremely satisfied with the dedicated team of employees assigned to our projects. The resources provided by Harbinger have assisted us with software development, research efforts, quality assurance, and testing efforts and have continually demonstrated a true partnership by offering us the flexibility required in our fast paced environment without sacrificing quality of work.
The Road Ahead In all these years, the relationship with Anonymous has grown manifold. Harbinger has been a perfect partner to assure success for Anonymous. This partnership has entered its seventh year and Harbinger continues to enjoy the patronage of its esteemed partner.
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About Harbinger Systems Harbinger Systems is a leading provider of software engineering services to some of the world's best product companies. Since 1990, Harbinger has developed a strong customer base worldwide. Harbinger’s customers are software product companies, including hi-tech startups in Silicon Valley, to leading product companies in the US and large in-house IT organizations. The Services from Harbinger Systems services span across enterprise software development, advanced testing services for software ISVs and solution consulting in eLearning. In 2009, Deloitte named Harbinger Systems among the fastest growing technology companies in its Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific and Technology Fast 50 India programs. Harbinger Systems is recognized as a ‘Super Star’ in 10th Annual Mobile Star Awards™ 2011. Harbinger Systems is among 2012 Global Outsourcing Top 100 companies listing by International Association of Outsourcing Professionals and ranked in Top 100 Outsourcing Service Providers listing by Global Services. Harbinger Systems is a part of Harbinger Group. Harbinger Group is a leading global provider of innovative software products and services to companies in over 57 countries. To know more about Harbinger Systems visit: www.harbinger-systems.com.
Awards and Recognitions:
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