Solution
Our collaboration started back in 2011 with a one-time project. Mark Information was looking to improve the user experience of their web-based user interface, ProPortal, but their in-house team didn’t have all the technical capabilities. Our team was tasked with implementing new Telerik components to their ASP.NET client application.
Mark Information was pleased with the initial results and decided to go further with the collaboration. The one-time project turned into a client team – or what we call a dedicated team – where they had people allocated to work solely with them. The dedicated team was split into two projects. One was focused on continuing the work on ProPortal, while the second started the development of another interface, called ProPC.
Our team working on ProPortal started a transition from Telerik RAD to Telerik Kendo UI for JQuery. This transition boosted the performance of the portal and set a solid base for future functionalities. Wirtek developers continued adding and upgrading controls and functionalities in ProPortal for another 3 years.
The second part of this project started when Mark Information decided to take the portal even further with completely new frameworks both on the front-end and back-end sides. They put together a team of their own but came to Wirtek for the extra support they needed on the front-end side. The transition to Angular and new back-end frameworks complemented the user experience of ProPortal, making it a much smoother tool for end users. The loading speed improved considerably (3-4 times faster than before); basically, everything was happening almost instantly. This is the platform most of the customers are using now (2021), and Mark Information is very happy with their product.
ProPC is another success story of the first years of collaboration with Mark Information, handled by Wirtek architects in partnership with the client’s team of developers. ProPC is a Windows-based terminal developed in C#, with powerful offline functionality for registrations of all kinds via PC or tablet – in the office and on the go. It was built as a solution for end users who needed to use the functionalities of ProMark in an offline environment. ProPC terminals are easy to use offline, and the information can then be downloaded and synchronized with the server. Even today, 5 years later, ProPC is still used by many Mark Information customers with minimal updates from the back-end team.
An ongoing collaboration
By 2016, Mark Information had established a seamless collaboration with their Wirtek team from our Cluj offices. They also had a long-term Progress Development team working from another service provider’s headquarters in Bucharest. As Progress is the backbone of their product, Mark Information was looking for ways to diminish risks and create a safe environment for their back-end team. They wanted a stable partner that could take over all their operations in Romania.
As a result of our long-term collaboration, Wirtek was a natural choice. We were there when they needed us to take on more responsibilities and provide a reliable environment for their Progress team.
- We opened a new development center in Bucharest as the first step in a new strategic partnership with Mark Information. The contract was signed at the beginning of 2017, and the new office was already open by the end of April the same year.
- The collaboration went from an already great working model to a much closer, team-oriented partnership. One of the things we are most proud of is having built a stable environment for their back-end team. The Bucharest office is a space where they can interact with their Wirtek colleagues, grow their skills, and access any new resources or technologies Wirtek has competence in.
- We also managed to grow Mark Information’s team to a number of 18 people: 8 Progress developers, 4 front-end developers, 4 QAs, and 2 fresh new DevOps engineers. It wasn’t an easy process, as Progress professionals were very scarce in the local IT market. The solution we found was to grow and retain our own specialists by running annual internships.
This year we also ran a successful DevOps internship, and 2 of the participants recently joined us full time. A large number of the current team members are people that attended our previous internship programs.
The team from Wirtek and their colleagues from Mark Information forged a strong partnership that goes beyond collaborating smoothly on a day-to-day basis. Working together from the same office has made a considerable difference, and Wirtek’s involvement in recruiting, administration, and employee development has kept the team stable and happy.