Foundation s.r.o. - Soonr, Inc.

Soonr, Inc.

SoonR, Inc. was founded in 2005 in Silicon Valley. SoonR was providing a data service that enables users to access and collaborate on their files, contacts, and emails from any computer or handset.
SoonR was one of the first companies aimed to simplify remote work and collaboration by providing an easy-to-use cloud-based platform.
The company raised $26 million in funding from investors, including Intel Capital, Cisco, and Clearstone Venture Partners.
It was scaled to 170.000 paying customers. In 2012, SoonR was acquired by Autotask, a provider of cloud-based IT business management solutions. Autotask was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2014.

SoonR has defined several areas where our team of software developers could help. Jointly we specified projects to work on and delivered the first versions. The project started in 2006.
Later, we jointly specified and worked on additional project, adding more software developers and testers to the team.
The team worked on document conversion features, mobile upload application, Mac desktop sync application and others.
The above allowed SoonR to expand its product features and reach broader audience.
The development team was later expanded and worked with SoonR team as one unit. This was one of the main success factors. The teams were working on the same product and communicated on a daily basis.
Our team grew up to 17-20 developers and testers. We were able to provide resources with required knowledge like Java, JSP, .NET, C++, C#, Mac/Windows, mobile development.
The teams met regularly to ensure the SoonR vision is communicate properly. The teams met in Denmark or in Slovakia.
Our team in Slovakia still improving this product to this day.

Reduced development costs: By providing access to a team of skilled developers, we helped reduce their development costs and improve the quality of their products.
Knowledge and Technical Expertise: SoonR gained the access to specific knowledge: mobile technologies Android/iOS, Java, as well as effective development and deployment processes.
Faster time-to-market: We helped SoonR to scale the product development and speed up the product launch on US and EU markets. This also helped the SoonR team to concentrate on product development, promotional and marketing activities.

The communication was the key. The teams met regularly, also in person, even though teams worked in Denmark, Slovakia and USA.
SoonR team was was able to communicate the company vision to the development team. The technical knowledge on SoonR’s side helped to bridge business and tech.
Our ability to fill various roles with required resources was a key factor driving team size. The ability of those engineers to work in an international team and communicate in English was crucial. Several key senior people worked on the project for 5+years.
Gradual onboarding in the beginning of the cooperation allowed us to adjust processes and communication. This helped later to add more resources quickly.

The application is built on a three-tier architecture, which supports rapid development and deployment, operation, and administration.
It is implemented using Java technology, which enables users to adapt the application requirements faster and supports application portability to other operating systems.
The code and configuration and deployment information were stored in the central source code repository (git). Automatic build server, and deployment scripts were used.
Communication was done by using the central issue/bug system for bugs, feature requests, etc. (incidents and problems). Wiki system for the project documentation. Skype/Email for daily communication and weekly reports, high-level meetings about the main milestones, resource issues ...

Java 6/7/8/11, JSP, Git, Hibernate, MySQL, Linux, Objective C, C++ on Mac OS and Windows, JUnit, Jenkins ...