Client Success Story: Reinforcing Engineering Capabilities with Dedicated Development Team

How to ensure your project never stalls due to a lack of technical expertise? Piceasoft, a software solution provider that aims to extend the lifecycle of mobile devices, turned to Cleveroad because of an urgent need for a proficient development team for enterprise-level projects.

Discover how we addressed the business need for a team of experts through a flexible staffing approach in our case study.

Piceasoft is a leading Finnish company that provides software solutions to power the circular economy for mobile devices. The company has clients in over 70 countries, with key markets in Europe, the USA, and Latin America. In 2020, Piceasoft was listed among the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA companies. The organization works with various global clients, including Vodafone, Swisscom, and the Telenor Group.

The company offers an ecosystem of product lines, including:

• PiceaOnline
• PiceaVolume
• PiceaServices

PiceaOnline is a platform to provide trade-in, support, recycling, and repair services for mobile devices across point-of-sale, e-commerce, and mobile channels.

PiceaVolume is an application that optimizes mobile device recycling by offering automatic device detection, device diagnostics, and secure erasing meeting with NIST, EU GDPR & R2 requirements.

PiceaServices is a modular software-only solution providing mobile device data transfer, diagnostics, and data erasure. The solution is designed to enhance trust in mobile device support, repair, and trade-in services at the point of sale.

Piceasoft provides a single platform for mobile operators, retailers and trade-in, insurance, and recycling companies to offer trade-in, support, recycling, and repair services for mobile devices. The products already exist and operate in several countries. As the platform and application ecosystem expanded, so did the demand for new functionality and changes from customers. This growth has resulted in the company requiring additional tech resources to meet increasing technical demands.

Since the products were already on the market, it was crucial to avoid downtime, and specialists were needed quickly. To expedite the hiring process, the company sought an IT partner who could swiftly provide additional tech resources for their large project.

Primarily, Piceasoft was seeking a team of experts for a project involving AI technology. Additionally, it was critical to find specialists who could quickly understand what to do in a large project with minimal documentation and start working immediately.

Ultimately, Piceasoft found the resources they needed at Cleveroad, where software engineers met their expectations for front-end development expertise with proficiency in back-end engineering and could smoothly blend into the dynamic work environment.

For the business, finding well-suited tech specialists as soon as possible was crucial to avoid delays in developing and enhancing the company's solutions and getting them to the market quickly. Therefore, the company decided to leverage the dedicated development team cooperation model to close missing tech skills.

The key factor in choosing Cleveroad for the client was our ability to understand the company’s staffing needs and provide the required expertise within a short timeframe.

Picesoft approached Cleveroad to find senior software engineers skilled in JavaScript, React, and Fluent UI by Misrosoft, who are also capable of working with C# for back-end engineering, to aid in the development and advancement of business digital products. To address the business issue in frontend expertise, we performed CV scanning of our tech experts. Then, we got back to the client with the choice of candidates within 24 hours whose skills fit the client’s project requirements. After we agreed on candidates, we organized interviews for team extensions within 2 days.

Such proactivity in addressing the staffing request was highly valued by the client, and they were impressed with our swift and efficient response. Given their key concern of needing qualified specialists as soon as possible, our ability to present experienced candidates within a day and organize interviews within 2 days demonstrated our commitment to meeting their urgent project demands.

After the client had approved and signed the SLA (Service-Level Agreement), our software engineers joined the project within 10 days. The onboarding process, lasting one month and conducted on our side, was spearheaded by our Tech Team Lead and Customer Success Manager to ensure a seamless integration of Cleveroad experts into the client’s projects.

During this stage, our Tech Team Lead ensured a smooth integration of the technical team by making sure the specialists understood the product’s architecture, task scope, and all critical technical requirements. Cleveroad's project manager assigned tasks to developers in alignment with the project's demands, optimizing workflow and resource allocation.

Simultaneously, our Customer Success Manager (CSM) worked to align the team with the client’s business objectives. Regular sessions were conducted to ensure our specialists understood the client’s goals and expectations. The CSM established communication protocols, creating a flexible environment for interaction between the client and our development team.

A feedback loop was also set up, capturing insights from both sides: the client provided feedback on the team's performance and adherence to timelines, while the team shared their understanding of the project and overall conditions.

By the end of the onboarding process, the development team had integrated into the project and understood both the technical and business aspects. A thoughtful approach to assembling and onboarding the ideally suited team of experts was appreciated by the client, setting the stage for a successful partnership.

Piceasoft’s products are complex and consist of various software components. Working on the frontend part of the platform involved many independent projects and directions. Our software developers have contributed to all projects focused on frontend development and have also supported the solution’s backend engineering.

Cleveroad’s software experts worked on the four projects:

• Workflow development for Piceasoft's AI-powered self-service
• Front-end development in different modules within Piceasoft’s products
• Back-end development for the Configurator's Admin Panel
• Improvement and optimization of Piceasoft’s application side and widget

Workflow development for Piceasoft's self-service powered by AI. Setting up a new workflow in the configurator to enable the visualization and tweaking of question chains and their possible results. Collaboration with backend developers to ensure that the configurator can retrieve, display, and update quiz data from the backend.

Front-end development in different modules. The key modules include a configurator (admin panel), widget, and web application.

• Configurator (admin panel) development. Designing an intuitive and responsive user interface for the admin panel. Working with backend programmers to integrate the admin panel with the backend services for seamless data flow and functionality.
• Widget development. Implementation of changes in the widget to facilitate accurate statistics gathering for the analytics system. Addressing and resolving visibility issues on iOS devices to enhance the widget's functionality and user experience across all platforms.
• Web application development. Designing and implementing a user-friendly front-end architecture for Piceasoft’s web applications, ensuring solutions are scalable and maintainable.

Back-end development for the Configurator's Admin Panel. Involvement in developing business logic on the backend side of the configurator. Creating, in tandem with Team Lead, a data structure for the self-service workflow. Specifically, it was required to extract AI-related configuration data from APIs and generate the necessary data to enable the workflow within the Configurator.

Improvement and optimization of application side and widget. Identifying, analyzing, and resolving tech issues within Picesoft’s applications to ensure they function as intended and provide end-users with a favorable mobile device lifecycle management experience.

Our software engineers used a variety of services and tools to manage tasks across different projects.

Frontend development:

• Programming languages: JavaScript
• Frameworks: React, TypeScript, Fluent UI, SASS, Redux, Axios, ESLint
• Environment: Node.js, NPM

Backend development:

• Programming languages: C#
• Environment: Rest API

Engaging Cleveroad's dedicated team enabled Piceasoft to sustain a fast development pace and onboard the senior tech specialists within just 10 days. By strengthening its engineering capacity with the necessary expertise, Piceasoft not only maintained a driven environment but also significantly reduced their time-to-market for new AI-driven product functionalities. This swift integration and reinforced development excellence allowed Piceasoft to meet the demands of their target audience.

The CTO and Co-Founder of Piceasoft, Jani Väänänen, shares his positive experience cooperating with Cleveroad's dedicated team.