Coherent Solutions | News - Coherent Thoughts Q3 2008

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Coherent Thoughts, a quarterly newsletter from Coherent Solutions designed to share news, research, tools and advice with software development professionals. As a Minneapolis-based outsourcing software development firm with offices in Minks, Belarus, Coherent Solutions has delivered hundreds of software development projects for clients in a variety of industries. We're learned a few lessons along the way, and we're delighted to share some of our experience and expertise with you. We hope you find the newsletter useful.

Igor Epshteyn
Coherent Solutions President and CEO

Coherent-sponsored study reveals key insights about software development staffing decisions

A research study sponsored by Coherent Solutions revealed some unexpected findings about how staffing decisions are made in distributed software development environments (development resources in two or more locations).

The study, which examined software development staffing decisions in technology-based organizations in the Midwest, was conducted in late 2007 by SoftwareMinds, a strategy consulting and research firm for the software industry. The goal of the study was to reveal the attitudes, perceptions, and key decision-making factors of executives who determine their organizations' staffing mix among employees, U.S.-based contractors and offshore contractor resources.

Igor Epshteyn, Coherent Solutions' CEO and president, said, "Probably the most interesting result is that cost is the least important factor in making outsourcing decisions. This is contrary to what you hear in the media but consistent with our experience with clients."

Read full research report...
Read news release about the report findings...

CUSTOMER PROFILE

Third try is a charm: Coherent delivers for Gearworks after two other offshore vendors fail

As Director of Software Development for Gearworks, which develops on-demand, location-intelligent mobile workforce management applications, Odell Tuttle was wary of offshore vendors. He had experienced disappointing relationships with both an Indian and a Chinese firm.

"Communication was a challenge, technical issues were difficult to explain and there was very little overlap between our workdays," he said.

Since switching to Coherent, though, Tuttle has been pleasantly surprised. "Coherent has a local rep who comes into our office once a week to work with our team," he said. Coherent's deliverables are also higher quality, and there's a noticeable difference in the firm's attention to detail. Most important, Coherent employees ask questions.

With Coherent as his offshore partner, Tuttle has been able to turn his software development operation into a 24x7 shop with the combined efforts of his local team and the CSI team in Minsk.

Read complete case study...

COHERENT NEWS BRIEFS

Local and European companies choose Coherent for outsourced development

Several Twin Cities-based firms have selected Coherent as their software development outsourcing partner. In addition, the company has continued its expansion into Europe by signing two new customers. The company has been contracted by:

Internet Broadcasting (St. Paul, MN) for Java development to support its content publishing solutions that are used by news stations' websites;
Marketing Architects (Minneapolis, MN) to rewrite its corporate website using .NET and Flash;
Illuminate (Barcelona, Spain) for Java development and testing to support product development of its data analytics suite; and
3M (Manchester, UK) for web development to issue and track asset/specimen checkout passes.

Coherent Renews Gold Certified Partner status in Microsoft Partner Program

Earlier this year, Coherent renewed its Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program for the third consecutive year with a competency in both Custom Development Solutions and Data Management Solutions. As a Gold Certified Partner, Coherent Solutions has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and proven ability to meet customers’ needs. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive a rich set of benefits, including access, training and support, giving them a competitive advantage in the channel.