In 2016 our client embarked on a landmark initiative: rebuilding its core on-premises product for SaaS delivery in the cloud. The project was critical to the client’s continued success, by giving its commercial real estate customers easy access to functionality that can improve their business profitability.

Migrating to the cloud would, however, require a large team that was highly invested and skilled across multiple software delivery disciplines. As we already had 20 developers working on maintaining and developing the on-premises product, the client included us in its evaluation of potential external delivery partners, which also included vendors in Latin America and Eastern Europe. After the review, the client selected us as the delivery partner of choice for this mission-critical project, based on our track record and quality of our work.

We implemented an offshore delivery center that operates on an ‘extended team’ model with the client. Within three years we had scaled the team to over 100 people, working out of a securely partitioned quadrant of our Hyderabad office. With scrum teams comprising developers, business analysts, and UI/UX specialists, the offshore team mirrors the onshore team’s capabilities. In addition, it also provides the entire QA function for the client’s flagship SaaS product and other products.

When our client decided to migrate its on-premises software to the cloud, the aim was to create a win-win both for the company and for its customers.

With the on-premises model, customers couldn’t access vital insights while outside the corporate network. They also needed dedicated hardware to host it and skilled administrators to manage and upgrade it, meaning many customers were left behind on older versions and were missing out on valuable new features. Our client, meanwhile, had the burden of maintaining and supporting multiple versions, as not every customer wanted to (or was able to) upgrade at the same time.

A migration to the cloud – and a continuously updated SaaS model with anytime, anywhere access – was the clear solution. However, getting there would require a swift ramp-up in development and testing capacity, a raft of new cloud skills and technologies, and an organizational model that would allow teams based around the world to collaborate on the development effort.

Rather than take on all the heavy lifting internally, our client chose to work with us, significantly expanding our existing partnership.

One of the biggest challenges of re-architecting our client’s flagship product for the cloud was converting its legacy desktop applications into slick, modern web applications. The client was keen to take advantage of the latest technologies and best practices to ensure a smooth and enjoyable user experience for its commercial real estate customers.

For us, this meant giving significant thought to the way the back-end services, the business logic, and the front-end user interface were architected. For back-end services, we built a platform in the AWS cloud and rewrote the existing service layer as microservices for that platform, with APIs to core business functionality and common services like user authentication and access control.

For the web applications, we took a micro frontend approach, creating a single host for all of the individual line-of-business applications and rebuilding each one as multiple micro frontends rather than single monoliths. By drawing on a library of reusable UI controls and components, we were able to create a consistent look, feel, and user experience across all of the front-end applications.

Grouping a large number of APIs logically under multiple microservices allowed us to simplify the design of the SaaS architecture, while a micro frontend approach supports the subscription-based SaaS model by optimizing application availability on the host. Our team structure brought further efficiencies: by having a dedicated scrum team for each micro frontend and microservice, we can deliver functionality faster, reducing overall development times by 30%.

Software quality is a key concern for our client, and the reason they initially came to us in 2009. We’ve provided QA services from the very start of our engagement, ensuring our client always releases high-quality software with minimal defects.

As the client has migrated from an on-premises model to SaaS, the need for extensive, efficient, and fast-turnaround quality assurance has grown.

As a global SaaS provider with a worldwide customer base, our client needs to offer 24/7 cloud platform support – not just for its customers, but also for its internal scrum teams working in pre-production environments.

Customer expectations of enterprise software are increasing, with most now expecting a slick, consumer-like experience. Our client is very keen that its SaaS product meets these expectations, with elegant design and an intuitive experience that minimizes effort for the user.

Throughout our partnership, we’ve continued to strengthen the relationship with our client. We do that not just by delivering the high quality of work that’s expected of us, but also by applying a proactive and innovative mindset. From building a dashboard to co-monitor application performance, to harnessing AWS Global Accelerator to minimize latency, we continuously look for ways to reduce costs and timescales for our client, and to improve the experience for its customers.

It’s a prime example of the kind of successful partnership that can emerge when both parties are invested in working as one team.

“Our alignment extends as far as shared objectives,” says Director of Development Kamalesh Nandi, who oversees the ValueLabs offshore team.