Customer Story
How Frontline Group built a product team in Latin America without hiring full-time
Frontline Group, a US technology and BPO company of around 100 people, hired two senior engineers and one QA engineer through Cloud Employee to rebuild and ship its Frontline Connect product. The engineers worked from Latin America for East Coast overlap.
[fill] the outcome sentence - beta shipped in X months, QA built from scratch, delivered under budget.
Key results
- 3 engineers hiredtwo senior developers and one QA engineer
- Interviews set up within three weeksof sign-off on the job specs
- QA function built from zeropipelines, automation, smoke and regression testing
- Delivered under budgetand under the original headcount plan
About Frontline Group
- Company
- Frontline Group
- Industry
- BPO, contact centre technology, SaaS
- Headquarters
- United States - fully remote
- Size
- Around 100 people
- Operating since
- 20+ years
- Product
- Frontline Connect
- Hired through Cloud Employee
- 2 senior engineers, 1 QA engineer
- Talent region
- Latin America
- Interviewed by
- Denise Marie Deptula, CTO
Hiring needs
| Hiring need | Before Cloud Employee | After Cloud Employee |
|---|---|---|
| Rebuild an unstable product for market | A previous outsourcer had no one who could run a product build with scrum | Senior engineers who could execute against an existing plan |
| Add capacity on a tight budget | Other quotes came back expensive and wanted control of the whole project | Three hires, under budget, no permanent headcount commitment |
| Stand up QA from nothing | No test environment, no automation, no regression or smoke testing | QA foundation built, then transferred to three internal staff |
The customer
[fill - 60-80 words] Frontline Group (linked, dofollow), 20+ years old, fully remote across the US. Name Frontline Call Center and Frontline Connect so all three entities appear. What the company does, plainly.
[fill - 60-80 words] Denise Marie Deptula, CTO, linked to LinkedIn. She came in to assess whether Frontline Connect was ready for market and concluded the back end was unstable and the front end was not fit for call centre use. Her call: rebuild from the foundation.
Act one
The problem
[fill - 120-150 words] The product was originally built by a two-person internal IT team. It worked, but it was rough. A previous outsourcer was brought in and had nobody who could run a product build using scrum. Meanwhile the internal team was one senior DevOps/architect and one senior developer, both already loaded. Tight budget. Other quotes came back expensive and wanted to own the whole project.
Unfortunately, it wasn't very effective. I had three different companies that I vetted and ended up going with you.
Act two
The solution
[fill - 160-200 words] Lead with engineer-led vetting - it's the reason she chose Cloud Employee. Then the real funnel: around 15 CVs, about eight interviews, three hires. Then her internal process - her senior engineer and director screened first, she interviewed second for scrum fit. Then the region decision: East Coast overlap ruled out Asia, Latin America was the fit. Close on scrum ceremonies, Teams standups, fortnightly sprint reviews demoed to US stakeholders.
[fill - 50 words] Short paragraph on the region choice, quoting "I just felt Brazil, Latin America was a good sweet spot for us." This is the single most valuable line on the page for proving LATAM. Internal link to /services/latam-developers here.
One of the great things that I found out about Cloud Employee was that they had their senior engineers interview these people before they even got to us. You don't get that a lot of times in other places.
Act three
The impact
[fill - 160-200 words] Beta shipped. QA built from nothing and then transferred to three internal staff at handover. Under budget, under headcount. Then the human layer - engineers presenting their own work in English to US stakeholders in sprint reviews, the CTO involved directly on calls rather than just a recruiter, client services checking on an engineer whose grandmother had died, PTO taken and honoured.
[fill - 60 words] Close on the model, honestly: the team plugged in, shipped, handed over and stepped away. That's a feature, and she says so. Her line covers it - an engagement can run six months or four years.
It was probably the best Scrum team that I've ever had.
What Denise said
And I have to tell you, it was probably the best Scrum team that I have ever had.
My name's Denise, and I'm the CTO of Frontline Group. We have about 100 people within Frontline Group right now. We have expanded into product, and that's where you guys came into play. It's hard out there. Trying to find the right people for the right position takes a lot of time.
We used another outsource company. Unfortunately, it wasn't very effective. I had three different companies that I vetted and ended up going with you.
So one of the great things that I found out about Cloud Employee was that they had their senior engineers interview these people before they even got to us. You don't get that a lot of times in other places.
We were able to hire two senior engineers, as well as a QA engineer. They wanted somebody that was close enough to our East Coast time. I just felt Brazil, Latin America was a good sweet spot for us. It was not just contractual. They were dedicated, really, really dedicated, and put their heart and soul into it.
I would recommend you all to anybody who's interested in finding high-caliber team members.
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