Engagement History
As the DataArt team continued to prove its value, Monex called on DataArt to tackle more complex and challenging projects. The team grew from two people in the first quarter of 2015 to nearly 60 people by the end of 2017.
Mr. Fray, who continues to oversee the engagement, introduced DataArt’s team to other business stakeholders in different departments. In 2019, Kirill Shustov, DataArt’s Programme Manager for Monex Europe, moved to London to work on-site at Monex’s U.K. headquarters.
DataArt is currently Monex’s exclusive custom software development vendor, providing a range of IT services from systems ideation to 24/7 customer support.
Partnership Scope
DataArt is involved in conceiving, designing, developing, and supporting Monex’s bespoke software, which enhances the operation of numerous functions, including trading, sales, operations, reporting, payroll, HR, legal, compliance, and risk management.
The engagement can be broken down into the following core categories:
to transition from phone-driven manual transaction processing to a modern omnichannel IT solution.
an innovative, global online payment platform that enables fast, safe, and secure same-day and spot foreign currency transactions in over 60 currencies.
to take advantage of the cloud and microservices architecture style. The system, which includes a trading engine, a payment engine, a compliance engine, a payroll engine, CRM, HR, and regulatory reporting, handles the entire back-office business flow.
a solution for any online payments or currency exchange provider or any business with an online presence looking to access FX trading functionality and outsource domestic and international payment processing.
Team Structure, Governance, and Business Agility
When the team was relatively small, hands-on management and oversight by Monex were achievable. But, as the number of engineers grew, DataArt implemented a lean, flexible, and efficient governance structure designed for client convenience. As Shelton Fray puts it: "I deal with four people, not sixty. I leave the nitty gritty, day-to-day project management to Kirill."
Figure 1
As shown in Figure 1, the account management team is responsible for strategic decisions, while five scrum development teams focus on specific products. There are also project managers, cross-team specialists (such as architects, database administrators, and DevOps), QA automation specialists, and business analysts who work with the development teams as needed. Teams are self-sufficient and require only minimal client input.
This structure allows for a direct, many-to-many relationship between teams and business stakeholders. Every business stakeholder (usually a function head at Monex) can reach out directly to the team leader to request and discuss any new product, feature, or functionality. The DataArt team can develop five major features at once in three-week release cycles with the flexibility to quickly correct course. This structure also allows development teams to make decisions, self-organise, and combine efforts in response to new challenges and changing priorities and then rebalance when appropriate. The result is exceptional business agility for Monex.
My colleagues at Monex love the effectiveness of the support function DataArt provides. There’s a team member called Lubov, who has become known internally as the fastest responder on email. She’s almost like an autoresponder! Whenever a staff member emails saying ‘this is not working’ she replies within seconds saying ‘we are looking at it now.’ This gives our staff the comfort that a human being is looking into the issue straight away.
The development teams consistently work with and have a direct and close relationship with as many as 12 business stakeholders (Monex’s department heads and executives) and occasionally develop solutions for 30 or more stakeholders at a time. This lean, autonomous structure results in efficient workflow and collaboration, allowing management to focus on the strategic direction of Monex’s IT.
A six-month roadmap of DataArt’s projects allows every Monex department to track their progress and discuss priorities, development speed, and any other specifics directly with the DataArt team. Mr. Fray says: "I have daily contact with Kirill and maybe one or two of the business analysts. Then we have monthly meetings and quarterly meetings. They produce many reports on how things are going. The invoicing is broken down by project each month, which makes it easier for our head office to go through."
The Relationship
Mr. Fray describes the relationship as «trusting and reliable» noting, "Trust was there from the start. I liked the DataArt team as soon as I met them. But it wasn’t blind trust. The way they approached the engagement and projects from the outset just set the relationship off to a good start, and it has been good since." He has high praise for the quality of the team, "DataArt has smart people. I’ve been impressed with everyone. When the product is released, it works, and it stays working. It’s very reliable."
The minimal involvement of management in day-to-day operations promotes a feeling of ownership and responsibility for all operational, architectural, and methodological decisions.
