Interview with Nick Damoulakis, President - Orases

Nick Damoulakis  

President, Orases

Give us a quick overview on Orases. When and how did you begin this journey and what were your motives to be successful in app development?

Orases is a US based Custom Software Development Company that provides strategic business solutions and services for complex business problems. Our industry and technology expertise enable us to focus on leading technologies to develop scalable, secure, and easy-to-use applications. We believe that a culture of open and honest communication with our clients can reduce complexity, connect individuals, and build trust, which ultimately will deliver a quality product.

We started operations in 2000 with the mission to make the world more efficient through delivering innovative solutions for complex business challenges. Over the last 20 years, we have established ourselves as the key technology partner for numerous organizations around the USA. Our custom software products have become the central components in our client’s business success.

What is your role in the management and development of Orases?

As the President of Orases, my responsibilities include establishing short and long-term goals, presiding over the workforce, managing budgets, ensuring the proper allocation of resources, and ensuring all departments meet their goals.

I have a strong passion for leadership and creating a great culture that allows our people to retire at Orases.

Tell us about your biggest achievement in the industry

We have successfully completed over 350 projects since 2000 for an extensive clientele that includes Fortune 500, start-ups and associations. We are the trusted technology partner of some of the greatest brands in the industry such as NFL, MLB, Xerox and Guardian Insurance. In addition we have received numerous awards for Best Culture, Best Work Environment and out team has the lowest turnover rate at just 2.9% over the last 5 years! We invest in our culture so during projects you end with the same team you started with on your project.

We are extremely proud of the accolades that we have received on leading global directories including TopDevelopers.co.

How do you scheme your pricing model? How do you fix your budget?

Every client is unique and have project has its own challenges. The pricing models followed are mostly dependent on the clarity of our client’s requirements and the security levels associated with the project.

If the requirements are clear, we adopt a fixed price model where the client is billed for every sprint or milestone and we keep the project within an overall budget.  

When the requirements are not so clear or we are taking on maintenance or product modernization projects with multiple dependencies, a thorough analysis of the effort involved is carried out, and a functional requirements document of the product is laid out through prototypes and wireframes. We then follow a time and material approach for costing where the billing happens for each sprint.

What do you think will be the future of software technology?

We believe that there will always be a need for custom software. How we achieve that may be different in the future. Currently we are able to provide the best in budget, timeline and quality by using different frameworks that are prepared with common tasks and procedures so we are not starting projects from scratch. However, as time goes on we see an opportunity for low-code systems that will allow us to deliver products even faster with less investment from our clients.

How do you schedule the development phases of the apps to promise the timeline to your clients?

We follow a pretty standard approach when it comes to setting timelines for projects. We first conduct an analysis of the client’s requirements by researching the products complexities, business needs and case, dependencies, and risks involved. We then make sure the client has a strong Product Owner, willing to follow a proven methodology and has the capacity to fulfill this responsibility. If our clients do not have adequate training in software development we will provide training for them at our cost. We find this saves everyone’s time and money in the long run. In addition to this, we spend a lot of time upfront making sure that our companies are aligned on what success looks like when the project is completed.

Once this is completed we create a project charter that has the project timeline, kpi’s, metrics of success along with other details that define the project's final expectations.

Once the details of the project are communicated and agreed upon by the client, Orases team begins the development. After every sprint, we request customer feedback and incorporate the changes before proceeding with the next sprint. This way, we make sure our clients’ expectations are met and there are no surprises.

Our approach comes down to:

Alignment

Iterative & Incremental

Quality-driven

Scalable

Collaborative

How well are you prepared to manage any crisis that may arise during the development process?

With compassion and empathy.

No project goes 100% as planned. At Orases we focus on making sure our teams are in agreement on what the purpose of the project is and make sure that every decision comes to fulfilling this purpose.

In addition we have a saying that we like to move at “The Speed of Trust”. This is described as the act of building credibility, based on two factors: character and competency. At Orases it is our values drive our process in times of crises and our Trust with our clients gets us through difficult conversations.

What according to you are the best practices to attain client satisfaction?

Customer-centric experiences is an Orases strategy that's based on putting our clients first and at the core of their business in order to provide a positive experience and build long-term relationships.

We make it our relentless passion to make it easy for our team and clients to monitor, respond, and improve every touch-point along the customer journey. We maintain consistency and transparency while communicating, and are clear about what is possible and what is beyond the scope of any project. We remain responsive to our client’s needs and bring ideas to table to meet client expectations. Our leadership team also does sponsor check-ins with our clients to manage any issues so the team working on the project can remain focused on success.

How do you update your business system to be in pace with the technological advancements?

Orases has received over $750,000 in grants from our state government to keep our workforce top of their game. In addition to offering great benefits to our team members we make sure each Orases team member spends at least 10% of their time a year‘s learning. These learning sessions range from soft skills such as Emotional Intelligence to coding in the newest technology for Progressive Web Applications. Having a culture that thrives on excelling at our craft, keeps our team open minded, flexible and lowers turnover rates so the team you start with at Orases, is the team you end with on your investment.