Viaccess-Orca case study

Viaccess-Orca

Viaccess-Orca (VO) is a global leader providing OTT and TV platforms, content protection, and advanced data solutions. VO is part of the Orange Group. As a leading provider of Over The Top (OTT) and TV platforms – encompassing advanced data solutions for personalised TV experiences, plus content protection services – the business has more than 20 years’ experience in content delivery, protection, discovery and monetisation. Now operating in over 35 countries, VO’s technology reaches audiences of more than 50 million people daily through their customers platforms.

We needed backend developers who could understand our product, so for us drilling down into the experience of the developers at the outset was really important. The combination of expertise and the ability to work faster and smarter through agile development meant Mobica was the stand-out option. The location of the team, in the UK and Poland, was also important for us; we wanted to work with a partner located relatively close to France, so we weren’t losing time across time zones

Cedric Hardouin - Executive Vice President of Research and Development at VO

Mobica initially provided three engineering teams to VO, working across the entire software development life cycle including:

Project Management (Scrum Master)
Development
Testing
DevOps

The initial project undertaken by Mobica included developing new microservices as part of VO’s Service Delivery Platform solution, plus analysis of the backend development architecture and a refactoring of existing modules. The solutions were implemented with the latest technologies, taking advantage of Kubernetes, Docker and Java with vast support of Spring Boot on CentOS machines. Integration with Google Play and the App Store also enabled in-app purchasing of video content.

Development processes were based on tools including IntelliJ IDEA, Maven, Jenkins and SonarQube. This has ensured a simplification of build and deployment processes, provided static code analysis, and consequently, code quality enforcement.

As with all key clients, an Account Director was introduced to support the Customer Success Manager.

We have worked together for years. As a result, Mobica has become a trusted and fundamental part of the team. The partnership has been a big success and we all appreciate the value that Mobica brings. One example of the seamlessness between teams is when we moved from a Monolith to Microservice architecture. Being able to do this, particularly with the Mobica team working alongside our engineering teams in Israel, has worked really well, and we have now put in place the pillars for a refreshed hybrid product line as a result.

Cedric Hardouin - Executive Vice President of Research and Development at VO

As Ranit Chrust, Program Manager at Viaccess-Orca, explains: “We follow the SAFe framework (which is a superset of Agile methodology). Mobica is willing to participate in every aspect of SAFe and is a key part of our SAFe ‘agile release train’. In truth, I don’t see any difference between Mobica and the other dev teams at VO. We are one team.”

Ranit Chrust - Program Manager at VO

Globally we try to make the teams responsible for what they do – so our developers can understand the real value they bring to customers. I like to use a team sport analogy – we are all part of the game. If we succeed, it’s because we have played the game together. And this is how I feel with Mobica. “We have a monthly meeting with senior management at Mobica, where we are able to have really frank discussions. If there’s an issue, we work together to find solutions. After the business’s transformation to full agility, the next phase will be a move towards DevOps and Mobica will be an integral part of this.”

Cedric Hardouin - Executive Vice President of Research and Development at VO