180° - recent software action at Sonalake

Welcome to our latest quarterly bulletin, reflecting on the action over the final few months of 2016.

Fibre to the software?

One of our biggest current projects hit full stride during Q4’16. Our European network operator client is innovating with a new business model to offer aggregated wholesale access to retail service providers. Sonalake was chosen to deliver the software platform that will automate end-user provisioning, billing, and lifecycle management. We have been building this API-centric solution upon our Verax B/OSS framework, working with our client to enable refinement of the features and integrations in a collaborative and agile spirit. Major milestones were hit during the quarter and further news will follow as this ambitious project ultimately lights up streets and backroads with high bandwidth broadband services, from managed Ethernet to VoIP.

Clickstream analytics and open source

With our origins in mobile communications, we have been designing software to process large transaction and event volumes for many years. In recent months we were engaged by a global client in a new industry vertical and tasked to design, prototype, and benchmark a data platform for mobile app clickstream analytics. When the production solution is delivered, our client will secure deep insights into user journeys, engagement, transactions and behaviour across a wide range of mobile applications.

One of the more challenging aspects of the design was allowing elements to be replaced over time - the rate of innovation in the streaming analytics space is at an all-time high. Further evidence of the incredible power of Open Source technologies such as Apache Kafka, Spark and Presto.

Team augmentation for AdTech, TravelTech and FinTech

Sonalake’s unique blend of onshore and nearshore engineering capacity allows us to work with clients in a range of ways depending on their needs. One of our software partnering models is called Team Augmentation, whereby we provide a dedicated team of consultant software engineers to collaborate with clients at a level of transparency that transcends traditional outsourcing and breeds innovation based on partnership. In Q4’16 we were happy to grow teams with clients in sectors focused on FinTech, TravelTech and AdTech.

From digital commerce, to data, to Christmas

The Christmas holiday somehow always presents a deadline for projects and 2016 was no different. We completed the first phase of transforming a digital commerce platform for our client in the leisure industry. At the other end of the spectrum we delved into low level complex data integration components in the communications industry, and in between we were kept busy rolling out new releases of business process automation solutions for several existing clients. The holiday was welcome when it arrived!

Industry recognition for our graduate development programme

We were delighted to be one of only three companies shortlisted for the Irish Software Association’s "Excellence in Talent Development” award. This was due to a unique focus on our graduate engineering talent, providing a breadth and depth of mentoring and exposure to nurture self-belief and experience, quickly. Many of our graduates enjoyed an excellent night out at the award ceremony in Dublin’s Mansion House, and apparently it didn't end there!

Giving a little back to the future

Sonalake was again proud to sponsor and volunteer at CreativeTechFest, the annual showcase for TechSpace, an education movement that inspires young people to become digital creators, inventors and makers. What an event we had in Google’s Foundry, with 250 young people enjoying workshops in 3-D printing, circuitry, mobile app development, robotics, animation, computer science, and virtual reality expeditions. The future looks good.

Thanks for catching up with our news! Please do check back with us from time to time and let us know if you have an interesting software challenge that we can help with.