Technology is one of those things that is so great—until it isn’t. Until it stops working, until the software updates, until the hardware is replaced. The cloud, like many other things related to computers and technology, remains a mystery to most people. Although we like to keep a mysterious air about ourselves, we realize that if you don’t know what we can do, you won’t know to ask us for help. So today we’re sharing a few counterintuitive ways we can help your business through some rough spots.
Breaking things is an important part of what we do.
QA, or quality assurance, is a critical and often-overlooked service we provide. It’s different than quality control. Even if you hired a developer and they test their work, our QA people provide information that allows you to work smarter and provide a stronger product.
We have our mysterious ways (cue spooky music), but what it boils down to is testing every aspect of a project from the standpoint of the user. Does it flow intuitively? Can we trick the system? By using automation testing and other tricks, we go down every path looking for flaws and workarounds, discovering inconsistencies and dead ends, and even preparing appropriate documentation. In short, we ask: does everything work like it’s supposed to? We’re thrilled when it doesn’t, but only because it gives us the chance to make it better. (We like to fix things, too. We’re not monsters.)
We can sniff out problems before they’ve even become problems.
(Huh?) There’s a thing called “code smell,” and no, we didn’t make up the term. You know how your bananas start to smell really ripe right before they begin to rot? It’s kind of like that, except not really. It was just a good example.
Our experts can search through the source code of a program and find symptoms that may indicate a deeper problem. The code may very well still be working as expected, but a good tech team can sniff out the potential breaches and failures that could happen over time, anticipating drains on application resources and critical security vulnerabilities. Then we will fix them before they bring your business to an abrupt and often costly standstill.
We believe in having a strong and fun corporate culture—without the corporate culture.
That’s actually part of what makes our company culture so great. We started working remotely long before it became popular because we knew that finding good people and allowing them to do what they do best provides rewards and benefits to everyone involved. Working from home, wherever that is, gives our team members some flexibility, but they are still are held to high professional standards. Happier employees lead to greater productivity and creative solutions, which leads back to happy clients. Win-win.
In order for this model to work, it depends on two things: One, you must hire people with strong work ethics and unusually high skill levels. (Check.) And two, you have to have a system to keep people connected to one another, to bounce ideas off of each other, and to make people feel part of a cohesive professional community. (We do that, too, through regular company-wide meetings and near-constant chats between our developers.)
We are sometimes irreverent and informal. Maybe a little goofy at times. Our physical environment may not be all buttoned-up and corporate. But you won’t get better, more professional and accomplished work anywhere else.
You can hire specialized team members without all the hassles of hiring.
Since we have such a wide network of qualified, talented IT people, we can also find people, short or long term, to help you.
Maybe you need to expand your team for a specific project and don’t want to deal with the payroll taxes and onboarding (and layoffs upon completion of the project). Or perhaps you don’t really have office space for the developers you really need—or simply don’t have an employee with specific skills you need. Whether you need front end or back end or full-stack developers, application architects or QA, cloud migration or app development, chances are good we can help you with that, either through our FLEX staffing model or by having our team do the project work for you.
A simpler way to say it is this: Have your people call our people, because our people can be yours.
We’re the ones to call when you don’t know who to call.
You don’t even have to wait until your system crashes (although, by all means, call us if that happens!). We work with all sizes of businesses on all kinds of projects. We will look at your business’s goals and technology use and propose efficient, effective ways to meet your needs.
We would love to break things for you—or fix them. Troubleshoot them or create them. Work for you or work with you.
Because the final counter-intuitive truth is one that we’ve staked our entire business and reputation. Truly, no one understands the cloud… like we do.