Asynchrony to boost London’s tech scene

Helping accommodate more business prospects and jobs within London’s tech scene, general manager at Asynchrony Labs, Kelly White, spoke exclusively with Software Testing News and TEST Magazine reporter, Leah Alger, about the ambitions behind the firm opening its new headquarters in London

Operating since 2000 through designing and developing “rich-featured” mobile applications, the software technology firm Asynchrony Labs focuses on the agile delivery of custom software applications, to help clients deliver mobility vision and assist mobile platform initiatives.

“People come to us with pain, which we try so solve. We build solutions and projects, and success is based on our solution. What we see from a customer standpoint is how successful we are,” announced White.

Joining the organisation to build a ‘User Experience’ practice to provide user research, UI design, and front-end engineering capabilities to software teams, White has been a vital cog in the wheel to keep Asynchrony turning for nearly 7 years. Seeing the company expand rapidly and understanding the importance of a friendly culture in the work place, he focuses on professional development, to continue the legacy of crafting measurably impactful outcomes for its European customers.

White revealed: “I started working for Asynchrony when there were 50 people, now there is around 450. The culture we had when it was a small company is what we are still very keen to achieve – friendly, informative and laid-back.

“It’s hard to keep a friendly culture when there are 6 locations and over 100 employees. We talk about craftsmanship, but how can we foster that when there are so many locations? It’s very challenging.”

‘Mastering infrastructure’

To help support customer relationships through “great design and development in the market”, White has bought software expertise to Canary Wharf, London, and is delighted to be part of the move.

White said: “It made sense to bring software capability to London and I am thrilled to be a participant. There’s something really special about having wonderful customer relationships in a city where we can grow from a staffing standpoint.

“The office will continue to grow over time, based on relationships we currently have in place. What we are trying to do is bring the best practices we have from the United States, whilst applying London’s culture. ”

Since 2015, market-leading technology integrator World Wide Technology (WWT) acquired Asynchrony, offering enterprises a single provider, mastering infrastructure and application sides of technology initiatives, with over US$7billion in annual revenue.

White explained: “WWT has been in London and larger Europe for five years now. It was here before we moved to Canary Wharf, which is perfect because we can walk to meetings.

“We have a very long on-going trusting relationship with WWT. They bring us in to really interesting capabilities, that allow us to concept solutions.”

‘Reaching out for new talent’

While the firm is challenging and diverse, it is met with a staff of “energetic and creative engineers”, who strongly believe the solutions they create is only as good as those they work with, according to asynchrony careers.

White commented: “There is a huge investment in our recruiting and on-boarding process – if we don’t focus on that then we can’t retain employees, which is how we have grown the business overtime.

“We have recently employed a couple of senior designers and business innovation consultants, which are very important job roles. Business innovation specialists, designer user experience professionals, software insurance, and core and quality performances are our typical team – we are looking to have a couple of these teams by the end of the calendar year.”

Asynchrony believes that “everybody has to start somewhere”, and is willing to help beginners get their feet in the door. The firm is reaching out for new talent to mentor and couch, and is on the hunt for the right person to build-up its best practices.

“Our new employees will go to St Louis for a couple of weeks with Chris Dicks, a member from Asynchrony, who will mentor and couch new designers for test driven and agile training. Once trained, they will build a bench to work on before a customer’s project,” added White.

Concluding, White noted that assisting mobile platform initiatives to happy customers is the “greatest, most rewarding feeling in the world”.

Written by Leah Alger

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