ntr lab - bespoke software development in russia

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NTR Lab

Turning ideas into software

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Contents

• General information• Specialization, industry experience,

expertise, major clients• Quality approach• People • Infrastructure• Engagement options• Web development portfolio• Case studies and representative projects

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NTR Lab – General information

• Founded in 2000 by a tightly knit team of experienced managers and developers with strong track records.

• Dedicated to developing reliable, secure, high quality, high ROI software.

• Our mission: «Turning ideas into software»

• Privately held.

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Management team• Nick Mikhailovsky, CEO

– Managed moving Russia’s largest EFT system to straight-through processing and online access

– Co-authored (with Alex Agapov and Alexey Mkrtumian) Russian translation of ISO 15504 standard (international CMM equivalent)

– Leads business development and sales– Leads Information Retrieval and Artificial Intelligence

related projects• Anton Malkov, COO

– Extensive software development and management experience

– Leads and oversees project management activities for most projects

• Alexey Agapov, CTO– Extensive experience in software development and

software process management– Led one of Russia’s first implementations of CMM level 3– Manages NTR’s quality program and other key projects

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Quality approach• We believe that quality originates from two

sources: process and people. Our approach aligns with ISO 9000 quality guidelines and Deming's original management approaches. – This approach, combined with our specific processes,

ensures both high quality and reasonable development cost.

– Our senior management were early adopters of best software practices and wrote Software Process Assessment: The evaluation and certification of maturity of processes of creation and maintenance of software tools and information systems (ISO/IEC TR 15504), a book (in Russian) on software process.

– Our technical staff consists of experienced engineers (not interns) and has an enviable record for adherence to high quality standards.

• ISO 9001-2000 certification received November 20th 2006

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Specialization

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Industry experience

• Healthcare • Finance/banking/insurance • Telecom• Startups – both technology and

non-technology

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Expertise

• Mission-critical business applications• Internet/Intranet/B2B solutions,

Integrated Web/mobile solutions, especially those for advertising/marketing

• Scientifically rich applications, especially those using Artificial Intelligence, Information Retrieval, Natural Language Processing

• Embedded system development

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Partial client list

• Central Bank of Russia• City of Moscow Economics Dept.• Dannon• Grey• One of the world’s largest business

consulting companies (see slide 41)• Russian Standard Bank• Tribal DDB• Klutz

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People

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Growth

• 2000: 5 people at founding• 2005: 26 permanent staff plus 3

full-time consultants• 2006: over 50 permanent staff as

of November

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Retention strategy

• NTR Lab retains its staff by offering stability, challenging work, good pay, strong culture, and excellent working environment.

• Corporate culture based on four principles:– Work is fun– Professional development– Equality and fairness– Camaraderie

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Approach to staffing

• Two absolute minimum requirements– Top technical skills– Excellent fit with NTR

culture• We accomplish this

through an established three-phase continuous hiring process, meaning we constantly search for, and hire, talent when we find it—as opposed to filling an opening.

• Screen resumes (10 to 30 for specific positions).

• Initial, pre-interview testing (only 10% pass).

• In-depth interviews with NTR managers and staff members.

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Attrition

• 2003-2007: Average attrition rate 9%

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Infrastructure

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Offices

• Moscow (2000)– headquarters– excellent talent (has become pricey)

• Tomsk development center (2004)– availability of talent (multi-university city with

excellent Math, CS and EE education)– more reasonable costs

• Novokuznetsk (acquired developer, 2006) − industrial center−specialization in accounting software and

business management solutions

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IT

• Workplaces equipped with PIII and PIV based workstations running Windows 2000, XP and Vista;

• Intel/Linux, Sun, DEC Alpha servers; Silicon Graphics workstations

• Full range of computers running Windows and Linux environments for sandbox and testing purposes

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Telecommunications

• Moscow office:– 10Mb internet link– 128Kb xDSL as backup; backup channel is

expected to be changed to CDMA for ground independence

• Tomsk office:– 10Mb internet link

• Novokuznetsk office:−511 kb internet link

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Security

• BS 7799 control areas:– Information security responsibilities within the

organization– Security incident reporting and response– Virus prevention and detection controls– Business continuity planning

• Further BS 7799 implementation in progress

• Exits and building monitored by security guards 24/7, plus guards on each floor 24/7.

• NTR Lab access restricted by electronic pass.

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Engagement options

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Approach

• Strong client orientation• Focused on minimizing total cost

for each client• Choice of engagement models to

fit any client needs

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Options: from once to long-term

• Project based (smaller and shorter term)

• Dedicated staff• Virtual Offshore Development

Center (VDC)• Dedicated Offshore Development

Center (DDC)

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Software process

• RUP• Agile/XP-type process• client-specific process

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Engagement options: locations

• Valid for non-project engagements only– Moscow– Tomsk – Novokuznetsk– Location of client’s choice in Russia or

Ukraine (DDC only)

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Other engagement options

• Combining the use of offshore and onsite staff (client’s or NTR)

• Managed by either NTR or client• Various levels of NTR involvement

in different phases: requirements, design, development, testing, implementation, maintenance

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Web development portfolio

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Web development experience

• Historically, over 40 corporate and nonprofit sites

• Most are/were internet projects of some kind

• Current projects in development include – AJAX portal (similar to netvibes) for a startup

in the US; – vertical search engine for a startup in Spain; – large directory site for a startup in Russia; and– web 2.0 site for a startup in Silicon Valley.

• Pre-NTR experience of our founders includes a search engine

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Dotster.com

• Description: Early age AJAX site – no framework

• Technology: JavaScript, PHP• Details: - Backend services provided by their

onsite team - Currently maintained by their

onsite team

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mobilography.com

• Description: SOA based service which can be embedded into any partner site looking to create communities enhanced with mobile content

• Technology: PHP, MySQL• Details: Successfully sold by the

founder to one of Russia's largest mobile content integrators

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Klutz.com

• Description: A large e-commerce site developed by a distributed team together with US-based partner company

• Technology: PHP, MySQL

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homereco.com, leadlings.com• Description: Complimentary sites based on the same

engine• Technology: PHP, MySQL• Details: - Development was taken over from another vendor;

problems included:• project was a year late• code was incomplete and untested• technically:

– poor page makeup, i.e. pages incompatible with various browsers

– incorrect formatting of PDF files for emails and contracts

– inadequate site logic; and – lack of intuitive interface

- We had both sites up and running in 90 days

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Case studies and other representative projects

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Medical IT: Dogbreath Software Inc., San Diego, CA, a leading developer of software for endodontists

• History– Original version of TDO (The Digital Office)

was developed by various consultants over several years

– By 2001 the system was bloated, with poor architecture, causing support and development costs to skyrocket

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• Process– Dogbreath hired one high-level, on-site

architect to be supported by offshore development teams

• reviewed 40 offshore development companies• interviewed 20• hired 4

– Only 2 produced positive output – one from India and NTR

– Based on performance, NTR was named lead developer, with testing performed in India.

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• Result– As of 2005 there were nearly 300

practicing endodontists in 17 countries using TDO.

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Medical IT: Appointment Scheduler

• Customer – AMS (Automated Medical Systems) Inc., New Jersey, USA

• Core – Medical Appointment Scheduler for medium-to-large hospitals

• Technology – CSP• Development tools – Caché, CSP

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Government: Budget management system

• Client: City of Moscow Economics Dept.• Core: development of budget

management solution allowing small state institutions (such as schools) to make and submit their budget for the next year and report on current year's performance

• Development tools: .NET, MS SQL/Oracle/DB2

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Entertainment: Embedded software development

• Client: Xperinet, Inc., Maryland, USA

• Core: development, evolution and maintenance of home entertainment system

• Development tools: embedded Linux, C/C++, online video processing/broadcasting

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Banking: Credit risk estimation system• Client: Russian Standard Bank • Core: prohibitively high credit verification costs

prevented development of consumer credit business in Russia; a cost effective method to estimate credit risk, in the absence of credit history, was required to develop this market.

• NTR’s solution: utilized custom algorithms, a neural network, and an extended questionnaire to estimate credit worthiness/risk quickly and cheaply.

• Development tools: Oracle, J2EE, C++• Key result: The bank has become one of

Russia's market leaders in consumer credit.

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Banking: EFT system monitoring solution

• Client: The Central Bank of Russia, Moscow, Russia

• Core: monitor the EFT system (critical to the Russian economy and its banking system)

• Requirement: architect and develop a monitoring system to oversee the EFT software and integrate with HP’s Openview monitoring system

• Development tools: BMC Patrol, BMC Remedy, HP OpenView integration, Oracle PL/SQL, Pro*C

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Marketing: Market research system• Client: top international business

consulting firm (NDA prevents disclosure) • NTR’s solution: the system utilizes complex

Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval algorithms, including decision-tree based Named Entity Recognition and text classification, for the purpose of extraction of marketing data from the Internet

• Development tools: MS SQL, .NET

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IT services: Database monitoring system

• Client: SATS Inc., California, USA• Core: provide outsourced database

administration services• Requirement: develop specialized

monitoring software • Development tools: Oracle PL/SQL,

Pro*C, C++

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If you remember nothing else:• Our company is comprised of young

intelligent and eager-to-work developers and managers

• Our solutions are aimed at satisfying the clients’ business needs and, where appropriate, are scientifically rich (especially using Artificial Intelligence, Image Processing, Natural Language Processing)

• We are quite flexible in terms of the services we provide, technologies we use and prices we charge

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Contact us

• By email: Nick Mikhailovsky, CEO [email protected]

• By phone: +7 (495) 962-0386 between 2 am and 2 pm Eastern US time.

• Visit us: Suite 325, 12/11, korp. 18, 1 Bukhvostova ul.Moscow, Russia, 107258

Looking for medical software expertise? Check out www.NTRMedicalIT.com or

contact us now for personalized answers.