Client case study – DropCloud

Originally, DropCloud was specialized in computer data security with a outsourced dedicated backup solution.

Project environment.

In 2008, in response to the growing demand for large file sharing, DropCloud created a web application named "We Send". The application allows users to access various features: 10 GB of storage, sending files via permalinks, file traceability, etc. The solution was then transferred into collaborative file storage and sharing space to become, at the end of 2012: "We Drop". This app is available in a Healthcare Hosting Data environment (HIPAA), based in France.

DropCloud has a very wide range of customers, from professionals (B2B) to individuals (B2C). The platform is currently used by 300 clients and +500 000 users.

Solving the HR problem and speeding up the time to market of DropCloud software.

Over the years, the development teams grew but access to resources and technical skills became more complicated. “We used to work with young graduates engineers. The inflation of developers’ salaries and their scarcity quickly made itself felt,” explains Marc Renversé, CEO of DropCloud. “We needed to access a variety of technologies.”

DropCloud’s solutions were either to recruit junior profiles or to train their own team. For Marc Renversé, “Working with junior profiles is not viable in the long term regarding the complexity of our products. For the second option, the time past for training an egnineer and the time to reach the market, the opportunity was already lost.”

Consequently, DropCloud was looking for an IT subcontractor capable of providing a diversified pool of technical skills while maintaining in-house R&D and technical architecture design. DropCloud wished to also just rely on a team of flexible size, which could evolve according to the needs of its activity. “We didn't want to internalize these resources permanently; we wanted to call upon developers while freeing ourselves from the constraints of recruitment and human resource management” said Marc Renversé.

Building a multi-technical team of 5 developers.

Our collaboration began with the development of a prospect management application. DropCloud had seven public sites and five application sites, all independent. A lack of cohesion between the applications and the old sales prospecting solution required the development of an ad hoc CRM by ourselves.

For the firs two and-a-half months, we dedicated a team of two developers who worked on the creation of the CRM with the Symfony framework. We also built a set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in order to easily communicate with the other DropCloud platforms.

After this first successful project, the technical team grew to five fulltime developers, who could work on three projects simultaneously. These projects use Symfony (for the back-end), Angular (for the front-end), Cordova (for the mobile app) and even technologies such as C++.

Access to offshore developers has enabled DropCloud to solve various issues: a flexible team with technical resources entirely managed by Bocasay. “Thanks to Bocasay, we finally manage several projects at the same time” Marc Renversé, DropCloud CEO.

Visit their website : dropcloud.fr