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What types of projects do we excel in delivering?
We have extensive experience delivering the following types of solutions:
- Custom enterprise applications to serve multiple business units
- Custom integration to bridge disparate systems
- Custom applications to add functionalities to off-the-shelf or internal systems
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What types of services do we offer?
To successfully deliver complete business solutions, our teams provide the following services:
- Project Management
- Solution Architecture and Design
- Business Analysis
- Technical Systems Design
- Software Development
- Quality Assurance
- Software Implementation
- Validation and Testing
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How quickly do we respond?
We respond very quickly to requests for projects with ready-to-go cohesive teams.
| Request |
Typical Response |
| Request for proposal |
10 days |
| Project start with signed statement of work |
14 days |
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Do we deliver a finished product?
Absolutely. We deliver fully functional code. Our teams work with clients through the end of software implementation into a production environment. With our agile approach, we provide functioning code at the end of each iteration. We also produce test cases, test scripts and test results.
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Who owns the code we develop?
Our clients own the code. It is the client’s intellectual property and we never reuse the code. In some cases, we use our proprietary or third party components to speed up development. In this case, the client has access rights to the code, but Integrant Inc. or the third party owns intellectual property rights.
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Do we provide maintenance?
Yes, we are always able to provide maintenance services for the applications we have built. For non-Integrant applications, we accept maintenance contracts on a case-by-case basis.
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How do we hand off to an internal team?
We follow standard design patterns and best practices to ensure the code is well structured and easy to maintain. Our team leads conduct regular manual code reviews and use code analysis tools for automated reviews. All Integrant code includes embedded commentary to provide clarification of the business rules and logic delivered by each module. At the end of each iteration, we encourage the internal IT team to review the code and we are available to answer any questions.
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How do we ensure quality software is delivered?
We believe that ensuring quality code is vital to the success of every application. Plans for quality assurance are developed at the beginning of the project. We start by creating a plan to define test cases and determine testing methodologies. Our teams use both manual and automated testing methods to ensure the code functions to meet the requirements outlined in the functional specifications. We also conduct manual and automated code reviews to enforce the use of accepted design patterns and best practices.
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Can we give an example of the security provided around an application?
Integrant's systems usually provide the following security layers:
- Role based
- Web-tier security
- HTTP basic authentication
- Form-based authentication
- Client-certificate authentication
- EJB-tier security (Java)
- Application-tier security
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What are our rates?
Engagements can be delivered under a fixed-bid or time and material contract.
Projects are typically delivered under a fixed-bid agreement with the development of requirements and specifications charged on a time and material basis. Some clients have a need for multiple pre-planned projects and prefer to work on a time and material basis. Accounts requiring ongoing support, maintenance and enhancements are typically under a time and material contract with a service level agreement.
Our rates are very competitive. We determine pricing based on the ratio of client-facing and off-site resources, length of project and the size of the team. Please let us know if you would like additional information regarding pricing.
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How can our rates be competitive with other outsourcing companies?
Our hybrid approach includes the cost of both client-facing and off-site resources to provide the following benefits:
- Client-facing, single point of accountability to manage all requests
- Direct communication with staff in the same time zone
- 24x7 resource availability to manage issues around the clock
- Cohesive, ready-to-go teams for faster project starts and delivery
Our clients eliminate the high cost of learning to work with an off-site only team. This can often take upwards of six months and does not guarantee a successful, fully operational and efficient team.
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How do we interact with clients?
Integrant Inc. provides a technical lead as a single point of accountability for every engagement. The technical lead is responsible for communicating with the client and managing the off-site team. Depending on the needs of the client, project requirements and phase of the project, the technical lead can be on site full or part time.
Our proven hybrid delivery model ensures the success of every project. Open communication and regular status reports guarantee that there are no suprises. We designed this model to ensure our teams deliver our client’s expectations.
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Can we provide a project manager or developer instead of a whole team?
Integrant Inc. delivers complete solutions to business problems and not just a patch to a problem. We designed our hybrid delivery model to strike a perfect balance between high quality, speed and cost.
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Why do we start with discovery and design?
We begin projects with a discovery and design phase to understand the business objectives and define the scope of the project.
We believe every endeavor to implement new software should begin with a good business case. For some clients, we help assess the business value, determine total cost of ownership and calculate the return for the investment. Many have already done the work. In this case, we start the project by understanding the current process and documenting the client’s vision for how the system will enhance their business. This process enables our business solution architects to deliver a design that meets all requirements. Depending on the complexity of the project, this process typically takes just 2-4 short weeks.
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What is our development method?
Our teams follow a modified version of the agile development methodology that enables refinement of deliverables to meet the exact needs of business users. We accomplish this by delivering the solution in multiple phases. Each phase contains multiple iterations with the delivery of fully-functional code at the completion of each iteration. The development team has daily meetings to resolve issues and provide progress reports. The client-facing team reviews deliverables every 1-2 weeks to demo working software and receive client feedback.
Please let us know if you would like detailed documentation of our development method.
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Can the system be up and running at the end of each phase and/or iteration?
Yes. One of the benefits of our approach is that clients get working code at the end of each 4-6 week iteration.
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How are changes handled?
Our process is designed to virtually eliminate unplanned changes.
We provide a high-level assessment at the start of each project. The assessment defines the scope, documents business requirements, determines the objective for each phase, provides a modular design of the system and produces high-level use cases. At the start of each phase, we outline the features of each module and provide estimates.
If, after the start of the phase, the client has minor modifications to the functional specifications, we will make the changes without charging any additional fees. If the client chooses to add a new feature, a change order is created. The client has the option of realllocating hours from the next phase to the current phase or to add hours.
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Do we have experience with multiple, concurrent development projects? How are these managed?
Yes. Our agile approach enables us to work on numerous projects concurrently. We build a team that is responsible for individual projects. If the systems are inter-related, we staff an enterprise solutions architect to define the high-level architecture for the integration of multiple systems. This person works to manage the technical lead for each project. Each technical lead is responsible for a single system or a portion of the enterprise application.
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What is our hiring process?
We have internal recruiters and outside recruitment firms working to constantly find and hire the best talent. Our recruiting philosophy is to hire the best and brightest. Our employee development methodology is to encourage specialization and cultivation of talent and aptitude. During the interview process, we look first for passion, intelligence and integrity. Secondarily, we look for the right skill set. Openings for technical positions require high marks on an internally developed technical assessment exam.
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What is our process for finding the right technical project manager for each project?
We assess the corporate culture, understand the demands of the project and place the best person for the job. We hire project managers with not just excellent management aptitude, but also good communication and people skills. Our project managers are also very hands-on and technical. They are able to drive and direct a team of developers as well as get in the trenches to develop code. On the rare occasion that a project manager is not a good fit, we are able to place another highly qualified employee on the account.
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Can the client meet the team? Can the client see resumes? How does the client know the staff is as experienced as we say they are?
You can easily meet the staff that will work on site. The beauty of our delivery model is that you don’t ever have to worry about productivity, efficiency or expertise. Our client-facing team manages our off-site resources. We are happy to provide resumes for every member of the team. We also provide clients with the opportunity to interview senior level team members.
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What is our offshore turnover rate? Average tenure?
We are proud of our very low 9% turnover rate. We opened our first offshore development center in 1997. Over the years, we have created a high retention culture to combat increasing turnover rates as competition for the best engineers increased. We have employees that have been with us since our first development office opened. Our average tenure is four years with most of our employees staying with the company for a minimum of three years.
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How many average years of experience does our staff have?
We actively recruit and hire talented technical experts including senior level engineers, team leads, designers and project managers. On average our technical staff has about five years of experience. At least 25% of our teams have seven or more years of experience.
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What are our policies for continuing education and certifications?
We encourage our people to nurture an interest in a specialization and fully support continuing education programs. Every technical staff member is certified in their area of expertise. We strongly believe in leveraging the value of industry standards and best practices.
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How is good work rewarded?
Bi-annual reviews are conducted to provide increases to keep up with the cost of living and to stay ahead of the curve in average compensation. We also provide salary increases and promotions based on performance reviews. Annual and project-based bonuses are awarded to recognize exceptional performance.
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How many holidays does our team receive?
Our employees receive 7-8 weeks of paid time off. This includes vacation, sick leave and standard holidays.
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Please contact us for answers to any additional questions.
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