Ongoing Third-Party Technical Expertise Technology Partner

Project

Ongoing Technical Expertise as Third-Party Technology Partner

Project Requirements

In this case, a regional manufacturing and construction industry leader approached us to build various applications. More generally, however, they were looking for technical expertise and advice without needing to hire full-time staff into their small web applications team.

Result

Using Blackslate Software consulting as a supplement to their in-house technology efforts meant the client could operate more efficiently. The company searched for months to fill open positions on the web development team, and Blackslate Software provided highly skilled software talent within days. The client also benefited from our consultants’ years of experience and varied backgrounds consulting in different industries. Our consultants on the job were experts in the necessary technologies. When they encountered a challenge or needed to give advice, they could also tap the knowledge of fellow Blackslate Software colleagues working on other projects. In this way, the client benefitted from the combined expertise of our entire consulting team while only needing to hire one or two consultants.

Working with Blackslate Software expert consultants also meant the client could choose, build, and deploy new technologies and software more quickly. As a result, Blackslate Software quickly became a trusted partner and ally when the client needed to make technical decisions or sought a technology solution to a business problem.

Companies utilize Blackslate Software expertise to extend the capacity and capabilities of their existing technology departments. Through the role of technology partner, Blackslate Software experienced team of full-stack consultants, covering development, quality assurance, and testing, and agile transformation, add efficiencies that may not currently exist.

Overview

Black Slate’s relationship with the client began as a small-scale, temporary assignment to implement batch processing of 3rd party data files. Over the course of the first project, our Blackslate Software consultants built trust and a rapport with the client. That first project grew to include more projects and responsibilities. What started as a temporary assignment grew to a team of two full-time Blackslate Software consultants providing expertise, advice, and software development to modernize the company’s suite of Java web applications and Configuration Management processes.  This included:

• Upgrading projects from Java 6 and Struts 1.3 to Java 8 and Spring Boot/Spring Web MVC.
• Migrating all projects off of Ant builds and onto Gradle and Artifactory to manage dependencies.
• Implementing a new web app to manage the company’s Engineering projects and time entry.
• Defining a release process, including versioning and branching strategies.
• Establishing coding standards and providing tools to enforce them across the team.
• Hosting an internal Wiki to document projects and processes.

Since the client is based in Wisconsin, Blackslate Software consultants worked remotely. Additionally, the consultants were available to travel to Wisconsin to attend meetings and training (live online & in-person when applicable), as needed. The result was increased efficiency and cost savings for the client while still delivering high-quality work and regular face-to-face contact.

“We have partnered with Blackslate Software for the last two years to supplement our Java development team with additional resources. I can say unequivocally that every Blackslate Software developer has been outstanding. They have brought not just heads down coding expertise, but have also added their experience and business acumen to our strategic direction for development tools, upgrade approach and technology roadmap. Blackslate Software is our preferred development resource partner and are recognized as a true business partner within our organization.”

Customer Quote