How we’ve helped a major publisher meet milestones quickly year after year

Thomas is the VP of Technical Operations at a major lifestyle media publisher whose responsibilities include infrastructure, cybersecurity, DevOps, vendor management, and more. Optimum Partners was his previous company’s partner for testing automation, and the engagement was so successful that he leveraged the experience to join this one.

Optimum Partners’ goal with Thomas’ new company was daunting: help the small in-house automation team clear a backlog of over 1,600 test cases which had accumulated across almost 30 brands over the years.

With Optimum Partners’ ability to quickly integrate into an organization and culture of teamwork, they were able to work  through the backlog in under a year — a “huge milestone” they reached faster than expected.

“Optimum Partners has a really good pool of strong, talented people that have experience working together. They don’t just execute, they team up well with each other and our team members in a very supportive, collaborative relationship.”

On thought leadership, Thomas shares, “They work to develop their craft and bring in new ideas, concepts, and approaches. We’re able to do much more with the same dollar having them as a partner in this way.”

That initial project was four years ago. Now, Optimum Partners owns the automation function and serves as additional engineering support both on Thomas’ team and for other product teams. The firm’s relationship with Optimum Partners has been especially handy at times when new projects have had to ramp up quickly.

“For a while, it was very difficult to find really good, talented engineers, even before COVID. We just could not find the right candidates and recruit fast enough. So being able to lean on Optimum Partners really helped.”

All in, around 60 Optimum Partners team members support the publisher in total today, and they’ve become indistinguishable from the in-house team.

“They understand the requirements, use our tooling, and follow our processes consistently across the board. Optimum Partners’ engineers work in the same way, deliver the same way, and are held accountable in the same way as our employees. It’s not that there’s our way and the Optimum Partners way, it’s all very much the same.”

In dissecting how Optimum Partners has been able to mesh with the organization so seamlessly, Thomas points to their flexibility, ability to learn, and new team members onboarding.

When requirements change, Optimum Partners has been quick to adapt. When choosing technology partners, Thomas believes adaptability is a top requirement:

“Six months or a year from now as your needs evolve, your business will need to pivot and you’ll be doing something different. If you pick the right partner, they’ll evolve with you.”

As far as learning goes, Optimum Partners hasn’t just learned about the ins and outs of the company’s technology, from the different codebases and repos to its microservices, but also its unique approach.

“They’ve really invested in understanding how we do things over the years, and they understand where the bar is in terms of our standards for quality.”

And when new or additional team members come on to the account, Optimum Partners makes sure the process is seamless.

“Optimum Partners’ onboarding process is excellent. When you add a new team member, they show up already plugged in and brought up to speed — ready to work at the same caliber as people who’ve been on the account for a year or longer. That’s a huge advantage.”

Overall, Optimum Partners hasn’t just become a trusted and integral partner to this major media publisher. They’ve transformed what members across the organization think is possible to expect from working with offshore partners. The widespread belief that working with technologists who aren’t full-time team members has been proven a misconception for the company, thanks to their lived example of working with Optimum Partners.