Smart Pension is a high-scaling FinTech company that has inspired a new approach to pension systems in the UK and abroad. Once their self-service and automatic enrolment solution proved a huge success, the software team started growing exponentially. The only way to keep up the pace and quality was to hire developers externally and leave further recruitment to an experienced provider. Here’s how Smart Pension ensured quick growth and top software quality by joining forces with Code & Pepper.
About Smart Pension
Smart Pension is a perfect example of FinTech revolution brought to the areas normally operated by state institutions and banks. The platform offers automatic pension schemes based on a defined contribution plan, handling the whole process through a digital platform.
Challenge
Smart Pension, a UK-based workplace pension platform, started as a product dedicated to their domestic market, but it proved to have the potential to conquer global markets. The new ambitions were followed by an increased demand for new employees – in 2019, the in-house development team growth exceeded 400%. At this pace, the company needed to find new sources of employees with appropriate skills to avoid compromising the product quality.
Solutions for Smart Pension
“The fast fish eats the slow fish” – agile teams for fast-paced growth
In today’s business, the size doesn’t matter as much as the speed of development – even a small player can win with a big enterprise if it reacts quickly to the changing market. As a consequence, such companies need to find ways to optimise their performance and maintain high standards. One of the ways followed by Code & Pepper and cultivated in Smart Pension was agile team management with such elements as:
- a dedicated product owner that stays in touch with the client’s team and is available for constant communication;
- project management based on Kanban, put together by a dedicated Agile lead supporting the teams in all locations;
- self-organising development teams working independently, but keeping each other up to date with their progress.
Over 40 exceptional engineers from Code & Pepper, based in Warsaw and Kraków, were seamlessly integrated with the London core team, regularly participating in online meetings.
Strict product requirements vs. customisation
As a FinTech product, Smart Pension faces the necessity to comply with strict regulatory requirements. More importantly, the evolution from a UK-based workplace pension to a globally adaptable platform requires constructing features that are highly customisable. To resolve the two matters, teams built by Code & Pepper in Poland work hand in hand with Smart Pension engineers to create an advanced pension forecaster. It is based on complex conditions, which results in just the right level of flexibility to adapt the platform to different regulations.
Continuous Deployment for irresistible code quality
Smart Pension has cultivated a strong developer community with high standards in terms of code quality and development process. There was no other way for Code & Pepper but find skilled developers and quality assurance specialists who would follow the client’s requirements including:
- Clean code – universally compatible with previously developed branches and easily maintainable;
- Continuous Deployment – new branches are merged 20+ times a day;
- Focus on testing – the code features nearly 100% test coverage.
Code & Pepper built two dedicated engineering teams, totaling over 40 outstanding specialists, located in dedicated offices in Warsaw and Krakow that meet the highest standards of security and infrastructure. Dedicated project and office managers ensured comfortable working conditions, and professional development, and maintained interpersonal relationships.
Code & Pepper have been instrumental in scaling our Engineering Team. By building dedicated teams of Ruby Engineers, they have helped us hire highly skilled developers into our business.
at Smart Pension
True Engineering Talents
Behind Smart’s Success
Our selection process goes beyond mere academic qualifications, scrutinizing over 70 distinct technical abilities to identify the elite 1.6% of tech geniuses. This rigorous approach ensures our development services are of unparalleled excellence.
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